For True Love
by Miss-Ashwright
Summary: What would you do for true love? You have a choice. Keep the secret that killed the relationship just to protect her from the truth, or admit you were wrong and tell her the secret because you know you can't loose her. The second that bell rings and she steps out of this building, your possible chance of getting her back is gone. Save her and yourself or never see her again. Simple
1. Chapter 1

***MUST READ AUTHOR'S NOTE***

 **AN: Okay, so this story starts out with Jace and Clary at the age of 14. I am then going to skip to when they are 17, but I will alert you when the time skip will happen.**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

"Why would Mrs. Belcourt even assign this? This is stupid," Jace says as he throws his pencil on his books and crosses his arms over his chest as he leans back. I look at the messy golden hair that is getting to long for him and roll my eyes. "You know why, Jace. Miss Lily agreed to let Mrs. Belcourt have her class period for one month and then it's back to History." He grumbles and sits forward to pick up the pencil again.

Miss Lily, our History teacher, agreed to let Mrs. Belcourt, the school counselor, have her class period to 'get us ready for high school' and 'help us not fall to the elements of peer pressure' and even to 'let us realize our own feelings and passions.' When they were explaining our schedule switch they used those exact words and all I could think was kill me now. Apparently, Jace thought the same thing because he gave me the 'kill me now' face.

But that was a week ago and now, Mrs. Belcourt gave us _homework_. We have to answer the questions on the worksheet with 'how we feel and what our true feelings are when we read the question for each subject.' I look over at Jace after I finished the worksheet and see that he's struggling on the _first_ question. "Let me help you," I say and pull the worksheet out of his hands. "Clary, give it back!" he reaches out for the paper and I put it over my head and to the side. We are currently sitting on the floor so if he really wanted to get the paper back, he could just stand up and grab it. "Jace, I'm helping you. Do you trust your best friend?" I ask and raise one eyebrow.

He sighs, "Yes, Clary I do, but Mrs. Belcourt is going to know the difference between my answers and yours."

"Idiot," I roll my eyes again, "I'm not going to write the answers for you, I'm going to read them off and you are going to answer them with whatever pops into your head."

"Fine," he says and sits back. His golden eyes look at me expectantly and I read the first question. "What do you aspire to be when you grow up?"

He smirks and says, "Well, I want to be a magical faerie and dance around in tights with antlers strapped to my head."

I try to hide my smile. It doesn't work though and he says, "I knew you'd like that answer!" That's the downside to having a best friend who knows you better than you know yourself…they always know what to say to get you to laugh, or to get you to be happy. "Be serious Jace. Now here's the next question," I clear my throat and my eyes almost pop out of my head at this question. "Everyone has different worksheets, don't they?"

He nods and says in a mockingly proper voice, "What evil does that question bring about?"

I laugh and read the question as it's written on the page. _Here goes nothing._ "What would you do for true love?"

He thinks about this question for a little while and then says, "I'd do anything for true love."

"Really?" I look up and think of a question to test that statement and come up with the perfect one. "Would you, and that insanely large ego of yours," he smirks, "admit that you were wrong to gain true love back?"

His expression grows serious and then he says, "If she's the one, then yes. I'd do anything to gain true love back…." He trails off. I write down his answer to the first question on the paper and I am about to ask him if there's any girl he's got his eye on when my phone buzzes. "It's my mom," I say and look up at Jace. I look back down at my phone and say, "She wants to know if I'm coming home tonight or if I'm staying here and she'll pick me up after school tomorrow."

"It's like 9, and you've already eaten, so you're welcome to if you want, Clary," Jace says and then adds, "But, if you're going to go home, I'll have my mom drop you off. You can get your bike tomorrow."

I text my mom as he says this and tell her I'll be staying here. We've been best friends since we were 5 so it's not uncommon for us to stay at the others house for extended periods of time. I have clothes and an extra sketchbook here, while Jace has his clothes and an extra skateboard at my house. Our moms are both divorced so they are also very close, but they call us inseparable. I don't blame them, though.

"I'll stay here, just let me get into some pajamas and then we can watch Netflix," I say and stand up. I crack my back and then move to put my backpack in the corner of his room. He has twin beds and I normally start in one and then end up in the same one as him. I've always slept better that way and he says he does to. I grab my clothes out of the bottom drawer of his dresser and head for his bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror and grab the extra brush that I also have here and try to tame my crimson mane. I end up putting it in a single side braid and then brush my teeth. I take off my dirty clothes from the day and I put on my purple sweatpants and then throw on my matching purple short sleeved shirt.

"Hurry up in there Fray, or I'll choose the movie myself!" I rush out the door to see Celine, Mrs. Wayland, standing there telling Jace goodnight. When she sees me I see no surprise in her eyes. Probably because I've been over here so much. She waves at me and tells me goodnight. When she leaves, Jace pulls out the remote for his TV and turns on Netflix.

I walk over to his bed and he makes no move to make room for me. "Are you going to move, or am I just going to be standing here all throughout the movie?" I ask him. He grumbles and scoots over an inch. Like literally _one inch._ I sigh and sit down anyway. If he's not going to make room, then I am just going to have to squeeze sitting next to him. He still doesn't move so I just decide to make the best of it and lean on him to get comfy. "Are you seriously not going to move?"

"No," he says and then starts a movie. But 1 minute into it, I realize that it's not just any movie…it's ' _John Wick'._ "You picked the best damned movie ever!" I tell him. He only chuckles and says, "I heard you struck my son." To which I respond, "Yeah, well that's because he stole John Wick's car, Sir, and uh, killed his dog." He responds, "Oh," and then we both start laughing. We can quote this movie perfectly. It may be a little intense, but the fight scenes are awesome! Definitely our favorite movie. It will never get old.

~.o.O.o.~

 ***TIME SKIP: Jace is 18 and Clary is 17 now***

"Perkins is such a _bitch_ ," I say and snuggle closer to Jace. He laughs and agrees and then continues to watch the movie. I look around his room and notice that the only thing that has changed is his bed. He traded in his twin beds for a larger bed and we are still doing the exact same thing we were doing when we were 14: watching ' _John Wick'_ and saying every line perfectly. I've never been one of those girls to absolutely love movies that make you cry. I'm not really one to cry anyway. My mom once called Mrs. Wayland just to tell her that I didn't cry when I read a book that she cried while reading and, jokingly, called me a, and I quote, 'a cold-hearted-bitch.' I just shouted that I could hear her and she responded with a 'you were meant to.' She rolls her eyes whenever she hears Jace and I quoting ' _John Wick'_ and grumbles.

Jace and I graduate next year and we have still stayed close, despite his manwhore-ness. I still sit with him at the lunch table, and we still have our sleepovers, but they are less frequent because he is off with Kaelie, or Aline, or Alexis, or Lena, ect. Recently, I haven't seen him with any of the sluts. He hangs around me more and I am definitely not going to complain. He is gorgeous with his long, but not too long golden hair, his golden eyes, and golden skin. He's done hockey for the past 3 years of high school and that has certainly given him a six-pack. I mean that in a friendly way of course, because it's hard to not notice when he sleeps with no shirt on.

I feel myself starting to drift off when the movie ends and he turns on a sports game. I could watch hockey all day long if I had to, but I can't do football.

 **Jace POV:**

I turn on a football game and I feel Clary's body relax. Sports always puts her to sleep, unless it's hockey. I turn to look at her and I can't help but notice how she's changed over the years…in a friendly way of course. She's only grown to about 5'3" while I tower over her at 6'2". Her curly crimson hair has mellowed out to be a wavy dark crimson and her dark green eyes look almost brown in certain light, but you can still see that they're green. Her Hair contrasts greatly with her pale skin, and she still has a dusting of freckles across her nose. She now has curves and you can't help but notice them, especially since she traded in the old sweats and t-shirt for shorts and a tank top. I can't blame her though, it's summer. School starts in 2 months and we are going with Izzy, Simon (AKA: Rat-Boy, Izzy's boyfriend), Alec (Izzy's brother), and Magnus (Izzy's brother's boyfriend) to the Lightwood's (Izzy and Alec) beach house in California.

Clary is close with Izzy, but Izzy is nowhere near what Clary and I are. They became friends when I was with all those girls, but I couldn't stand not seeing Clary as much anymore, so I stopped my player ways. I can't wait for the beach though. It will be fun to throw Clary in the water when she's not paying attention. I think it will be a really fun summer. We leave tomorrow actually. That's another reason why she's here. The Lightwood's are already there and we are flying out to meet them. I don't know why, but I feel like this summer's going to be the best summer yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I have absolutely no excuses for being this late on publishing…please forgive me…**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

"Clary, get up," I hear the melodic voice tell me. I groan and nuzzle my pillow. "Okay, then. Have it your way," I hear the voice say and it's too late when I realize where I am. Jace's house.

My eyes fly open, only to see two little brown and white fur balls jumping towards me. I squeal and pull the blanket over my head to no avail, Celine's two Mini Australian Shepherds, Bear and Bandit, who adore her and obey Jace, find a way to get under the blanket. "Jace! Help me," I squeal while laughing. I am currently getting, what Jace and I call, a 'face-wash.' In other words, they are licking my face to no end. I hear Jace's laugh and cover my face when I realize that he is definitely not going to help me.

I lay there for what must be a good 5 minutes, getting licked everywhere, and I mean _everywhere_ , before Jace pulls them off of me and they sit on the edge of the bed with him, staring at me with their tongues hanging out. "Damn," I say and point to Bandit, the smaller of the two brothers with one blue eye and one brown eye, "that dog has the world's longest tongue." He laughs and says, "You've been here since we got them and you're just noticing that _now?_ "

"No, I'm just stating a fact. Like the fact how Bear sleeps on his stomach and looks like a frog," I say simply and then get a glance at the clock. " _Why would you get me up at 5:30?!"_ I ask very loudly.

He smirks at me and says, "Would you mind taking it down a few octaves. Look at the poor dogs," he motions to the two dogs that are now playing chase on the bed. I raise an eyebrow, "They're playing, Jace. Not whimpering and covering their ears with their paws."

He then looks at the dogs and commands them to cover their ears with their paws. The dogs lie on their stomachs, place their heads on the ground, and place their paws over their ears. "Smartass," I say to Jace and he smirks. "Well, to answer your question about why I'm waking you up this early is because our flight to California leaves at 7:30 and you take forever to get ready," he states simply and I get out of bed. I scoff and ignore that comment. I walk into the bathroom to shower and get the dog saliva off of me. Of course, when I turn around to get my clothes, I see that Jace has gone down stairs to feed the dogs and make us breakfast.

~.o.O.o.~

After my shower, I put my wet hair into a side braid and put on my black leggings and my oversized t-shirt that I am positive belonged to Jace at some point. I tie the shirt into a knot at the side and put on my old sneakers. I pull my suitcase down stairs and put my messenger bag over my shoulder.

In the kitchen, I know exactly what Jace is making…pancakes. I grab two plates, give one to Jace, and head for the island with my three pancakes. We have to careful to not wake Celine as we talk about what we think Izzy is going to make us do over summer. "Who knows," I say as I clean off my plate in the sink. I check the watch on the wall and see that it reads 6:45. "Jace, we better get going if we're going to make that flight."

"Already called the taxi," he says and then grabs his suitcases. I follow suit and pet the dogs on my way out. They jump on me and I now have long white dog hair on my black leggings. _Awesome._

~.o.O.o.~

The plane took off and now Jace and I are waiting for the Capitan to tell us that we can use our electronic devices. I notice the girls staring at Jace and see some whispering to their friends. _Great, here we go._ I look over at Jace and see that he is fishing in my bag for my iPad. I lean down to whisper in his ear, "You've got every single girl on this plane looking at you."

"So?" he turns his head to look at me and opens his mouth to say something else, but inhales sharply when he sees how close our lips are. I freeze too and stop breathing. I feel my heart rate spike and we sit like that, bent over, not moving, Jace holding my iPad in his hands, until some blue haired bimbo interrupts us. She has long blue hair in a bun and with the way she's dressed, I'm shocked she's made it this far. "There's an empty seat by me, if you want," she attempts to speak in a sultry voice and her eyes are glued onto Jace.

We are both sitting upright in our seats again when Jace responds, "I'm fine with sitting here." She looks at him longingly and when he leans into me (we pushed up the seat divider so we could be more comfortable) her _lovely_ presence gets _even better_. She glares at me and I see her 'inner beauty' really shine. "Surely you couldn't be with her, she's a little young and looks immature," she puts her sultry voice back on as she says, "You should be with someone a little more experienced, don't you think? I mean she's like what, 12?"

I look at Jace as she says this and I can see him tense. He's been my best friend ever since we were five and I know how to read him well. She continues on speaking and I know that the gloves have come off with Jace. She leans on the aisle seat where Jace is sitting and nods her head towards her seat. I watch the interaction closely and see that Jace is acting as if he's contemplating it. She looks victoriously at me and I just sit there, acting like I don't know what's going to happen with a worried expression on my face.

She was definitely not expecting these next words to come out of Jace's mouth. Neither was I.

"You know what? I'm fine with sitting here, probably because she's my best friend, you insulted her, and you don't know anything about me. Those aren't my only reasons…my other reason is that she is ten times more beautiful than you and I'm not just talking about inner beauty…" he trails off and looks satisfied with his answer as I sit there with a shocked expression on my face before I regain my composure and smirk triumphantly at her. She looks absolutely shell-shocked. She manages to walk slowly back to her seat and I start fishing around my bag for the splitters and my earphones.

He exhales and sits still for a few minutes. I feel as if I wasn't supposed to hear that, so I quickly shove in my earphones and plug it into the splitter, acting as if I was doing this the entire time. I mess around on the iPad, picking the movie, which, as always, is _'John Wick.'_ He plugs his earphones into the splitter also and I start the movie. I let my thoughts drift off during the beginning of the movie because it's kinda depressing.

He doesn't know it, but when he turned back to face me I heard him breathe a sigh of relief as he took in me wearing my earphones. I took one out and asked him 'what that was about' and he just responded with 'that girl insulted you and asked if I wanted to sit by her.'

I snap out of my thoughts as I hear John realize who it was that put him in the position of scrubbing his floor clean and then the screen cuts to a bus…onto the ass kicking.

~.o.O.o.~

"Alright, folks. We are beginning our descent into California. It is currently 72o and is raining, sorry about that, it seems the ever sunny California isn't so sunny right now," the passengers laugh lightly as the Capitan makes his announcement, "At this time I would like to ask you if you could place any large electronic items back in their bag, turned off. Any smaller devices, such as cell phones must remain in airplane mode until we safely land, and may be used if wished during our descent. We should be landing in about 20 minutes."

Jace and I look at each other and our unspoken words always are understood. I unplug the splitter from the iPad and turn it off as Jace grabs his phone and plugs the splitter into it. I place the iPad back into the bag and we listen to music as we descend.

~.o.O.o.~

Jace and I are getting our bags from baggage claim when I see a text from Izzy.

 **New iMessage from: Izzy**

 **Hey, girlie! When your plane lands get a rental car because I'm not chauffeuring your ass everywhere in CA. See ya at the beach house! P.S. the address is in your email.**

I groan. "Jace, it looks like we're getting a rental car."

"Why," he asks as he grabs our bags.

"Because Izzy is an ass and is too lazy to pick us up. She also claims that she is 'not chauffeuring my ass everywhere.'"

"Then let's get us a rental car." We grab our bags and head to the rental car area. I had no idea Jace would work his magic like he did, but the person helping us was indeed a girl, and boy did we get a car.

~.o.O.o.~

"Jace, slow down!" I am gripping the handle in the car for dear life. He just laughs and glances at me. His eyes dart back to the freeway as he says, "Clary, we'll be there in less than 20 minutes. Relax…and you know what? I'm thinking of getting one of these baby's when we get back home."

I roll my eyes and scoff, "What is it with guys and fast cars?"

"It's the thrill," he pauses and I look over at him, "and maybe the idea of having a hot girl that goes with it."

 _There's the answer I was expecting._ I face forward again and mess with the radio. If we're going to be in this car for the rest of summer, I might as well figure out the radio.

~.o.O.o.~

We pull up in front of the beach house and all I can say is wow. It's absolutely pouring outside and considering the fact that you really can't drive any farther because fog is settling on the small town we're in, Jace parks on the front patio and tells me that 'he'll move it when he can actually see.' We open the doors and run to the house. It isn't that far a run to the front door considering the wooden door/gate that leads to not only the house, but also a casita and it's covered. We still manage to be absolutely soaked to the bone. We slam the front door shut as we enter and I hear Izzy coming towards us. She was in a room that was right next to the front entryway and I'm guessing that's her room?

She takes one look at us and asks, "Is it raining?"

I respond, "No, I'm drenched in liquid sunshine."

Jace responds, "No, I'm practicing to be a water sprinkler."

Izzy just rolls her eyes and starts to explain the house, "Okay, so there's three floors. Simon and I are on the bottom floor in the master. There's also an exercise room, extra bathroom, laundry room, two balconies, and the garage on that floor. The top floor is Mag's and Alec's. They have an extra entrance and a living room up there," she points up, "This floor has the office, another bedroom-which is my closet-living room, kitchen, dining room, large balcony, and a casita. The casita will be yours."

"Jace and I are sharing a room?" I ask. She looks at me and then nods her head. "Well, I have to get back to organizing my closet, so-" she turns to go back into her 'closet'.

"Oh, I almost forgot," she pokes her head out of the room," there's an elevator."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story…I own the plot.**

It stopped raining, so Jace and I go out to his car and get our stuff. When we open the door to the casita, I don't know what I expected. It has light hardwood floors like the house, a fairly large closet, a bathroom, a balcony, and in the center of the room, a bed. We unpacked our stuff and changed out of our sopping wet clothes. It was only 3:00 but I could tell that the weather wouldn't let up until tomorrow. That and I checked the weather app on my phone. Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and 78*. "I'm actually going to get in the shower and into my pajamas…I'm pretty sure Izzy isn't going to make us do anything else today," I tell Jace while grabbing my pajamas.

He nods his messy golden head and reaches around his now empty suitcase for something. I turn to get in the shower and I can't help but wonder where Alec and Magnus are.

~.o.O.o.~

When I get out of the shower, I change into my usual sleep shorts and top. I didn't realize how cold it'd be when I opened the steamy bathroom door though. The second I opened that door, I was hit by a wall of cold air. The door to the casita has two parts. You can open the top part of the door and keep the bottom part closed, or shut the door altogether. Jace has also opened the windows to get some air flow in here. I expected it to be cold, but not _this_ cold. "Holy," I trail off as I run into the closet that is right next to the bathroom and grab a sweatshirt, "It's _freezing!_ How are you still in wet clothes?"

He shrugs and says, "You'll see how I distracted myself." Then he gets back up and heads in the shower himself. He shuts the door and I jump on the bed. _This bed is like a cloud!_ My brain doesn't pay attention to the level of comfort of this bed anymore because I see that Jace brought a connector and already connected the iPad into the TV. _He's amazing!_

By the time Jace gets out of the shower, it's closer to five. And Magnus and Alec come through the gate. "Who is driving the black Mustang?" I hear Magnus say. They are shaking the water off of their umbrellas. I get up and head towards the casita door and lean on the bottom part. I rest my head on my hands and respond, "That'd be Jace."

Magnus and Alec jump and turn towards me. I smile and wave and then Magnus opens the casita door. He immediately pulls me into a hug and I can already feel glitter on me. "Biscuit, you're here!" We pull back from our hug and I look over at Alec. I'm not surprised to see that he's talking with Jace…they are on the same Varsity Hockey team at school and Jace is, of course, the team captain.

"Mags," I grab his attention, "What's Izzy doing? She seemed so…closed off when we got here."

Magnus sighs and looks sad. "Saul and Izzy are going through a bit of a rough patch, Biscuit."

"Really? Is it okay if I ask what happened between _Simon_ and Izzy," I ask quietly.

He sighs and looks over at Alec and Jace, deep in discussion. He grabs my hand and pulls me into the casita and shuts both the top and bottom door. The door has two windows at the top of it and I see Jace looking curiously at me. Before I can shrug my shoulders, Magnus reaches past me and closes the blind over the two windows. But not before he sends a quick wink in Jace's direction. I hear Jace start to knock on the door and then Magnus locks it before Jace can open it. I hear Alec laughing at Jace and then Magnus smirks. "Are you going to tell me what's up or not?" I get Mags attention back and his joy is short lived. His face drops immediately. "Well, Biscuit," he begins and sighs, "I hope she's not mad at me for telling you this, but this is why Alec and I were gone."

My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. "Was it that bad?"

He nods his head sadly and continues, "Simone forgot their three year-iversary today. Izzy hasn't been talking to him since lunch."

"Lunch? Why lunch?" I interrupt.

"She thought Sam was going to say something this morning during breakfast, but he didn't say anything." Magnus answers. He's been calling Simon by different names ever since he met him so now we're all kinda used to it. He can't even keep the same name throughout conversations. At least they've all started with 'S' so he _is_ close.

"Does Simon know why she's not talking to him?"

"No," Magnus sighs, "Scott doesn't know what he did wrong. Izzy was so distraught after breakfast that Alec and I followed her into her bedroom while Sean cleaned the dishes. We asked her what was wrong and she told us everything that I just told you. I told her that I would talk to Steven while Alec stayed with her, but she told us not to. She said that she didn't want us saying anything to him and if it was meant to be, then he'd remember."

"Wow, he's really in the doghouse isn't he?" I say. "Mmm-hmm," Magnus nods somberly. Simon has a horrible memory. All throughout high school, he's forgotten things, whether it's his _mothers'_ and his _sisters'_ birthday, or it's that he's supposed to give me a ride home with Izzy because Jace had hockey practice. Amazingly enough, he's never forgotten his homework. His brain works oddly.

Magnus and I are still standing by the door, feeling kinda down because we know what Simon had to go through to be with Izzy. "Wait…" I get an amazing idea. Magnus looks up at me and gets a hopeful look when he sees that I'm coming up with something. "What _exactly_ did Izzy say?"

"She said, 'It was our three-,'" I cut him off. "No. Not that part, fast forward to the part about not telling Simon."

"Oh…if you mean the part when she told us not to tell Seth, then there's not really anything we can do," his hopeful look vanishes.

"I don't care. Tell me what she said _exactly_. "

He takes a deep breath and begins, "She said, and I quote, 'Magnus, I don't want you or Alec telling him anything.'"

"It might just work," I say. Magnus looks at me skeptically and I begin to tell him my plan. "Okay, so here's what were going to do…"

~.o.O.o.~

Magnus and I leave the casita with the full intention of making this plan work. Magnus heads for the living room where Alec and Jace have moved to watch hockey while I head down stairs. His first stop is getting Alec and Jace in on the plan and getting Jace to actually agree to helping. My first stop is talking to Simon. I hear the game pause upstairs and continue walking down the stairs. When I reach the bottom floor I immediately look down at my feet. The light hardwood flooring has stopped at the stairs and the floor I am walking on now is dark unpolished tile.

I look to my right and decide to try the heavy-duty white door. I open the door and am met with the garage. ' _This could work_ ' I think to myself as I close the door and try the other door under the stairs. _Aaand there is a storage closet. Now onto the door on the left side of the stairs_. I walk around the stairs and open the door. _Of course this is the laundry room. Can I not catch a break?_ I sigh to myself as I shut the door and turn to my right.

I _do_ see the double doors on the other side of the wall, but I am more interested in the view from the exercise room. The back of the house faces the beach and even though it's foggy and cloudy outside, you can still kinda see the beach. When Izzy said this was a beach house, she wasn't kidding. The house is on a hill and there are steps leading down to the beach. You walk down the stairs that are on the side of this hill and you are at the beach…literally. I turn my attention to the exercise equipment and see that there is a spin bike, elliptical, and yoga mat. I see an open door behind the elliptical and see that it's the extra bathroom. The door to the left of that is most likely the extra closet.

I made a full circle while looking at the room and I'm now looking at the mirror that is covering the wall, only to see myself staring back at me. _Yep, this will_ _definitely_ _work._ I turn my attention to the white double doors and knock. The doors open and I see Simon staring back at me. His face goes from hopeful (meaning that he was hoping I was Izzy) to happy to see me. "Clary! When did you get here? I didn't hear you come in," he smiles as he says this and motions for me to come in. I walk past him and glance quickly around the room.

I see two doors to my right, and one is opened. I see that it's the bathroom and come to the conclusion that the other door is _another_ closet. On my left I see a chest of drawers on the opposite wall of the _very large_ bed that is facing the door, and a seating area by the windows. I head towards the two chairs and sit. Simon looks at me curiously from his position by the door and opens his mouth to speak, but I raise my hand to silence him. "Shut the doors, Simon."

He closes the doors slowly and a snail could be faster than Simon as he came over to sit across from me. "We need to talk," I say and can see him visibly gulp. When Jace would be with one of the sluts, both at school and not at school, I would hang out with Izzy and at one point, Izzy's scariness rubbed off on me. I can be really intimidating to Simon if need be and now is one of those times. "About what?"

"About you and Izzy," I say and through the glasses, I see worry flash in his eyes. "Are you finally going to tell me why she's not talking to me?" he sounds hopeful. "Yeah…and now Mags, Alec, maybe Jace, and I are going to get your ass out of the hole you're in."

"I don't even know what I did!" he goes on the defensive side.

"Whoa, calm down. I'm helping you aren't I?"

He nods his head and motions for me to continue. "You must remain absolutely silent throughout what I'm going to say." He nods his head and I begin, "Well, you and that amazing memory of yours, forgot that today was your three year-iversary with Izzy." I hear him inhale sharply and before I can tell him the plan, there's a knock at the door.

I stand up and walk over to the door. I open it and see that it's Magnus and Alec…but no Jace. "Where's Jace?" I ask. Magnus shakes his head and I step aside to let them in. Alec walks over to where Simon is and is trying to get his attention. But, with what I just told him, he's in complete and utter shock. Alec is actually waving his hand in front of Simon's face. Magnus is still standing by me and we start talking quietly. "I told him what today is and I was just about to tell him the plan when you guys knocked, so that's your job. Now what happened with Jace? I assume you informed him and told him and Alec the plan."

"I can tell him the plan and yes I told them both what was happening and what was going to happen. Alec jumped on the chance to help Izzy, but Jace didn't want to get involved," Magnus shakes his head sadly.

"This plan won't work without Jace helping," I say and I immediately get an idea. "I'll talk to Jace and get him running down the stairs to help you set it up before I go talk to Izzy," I smirk as I say this and I exit the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Thank you for the lovely reviews! They made my day! Also, I have to say, '** ** _John Wick'…._** ** _Awesome freaking movie!_** **Now on to the story….**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters used in this story.**

I am holding onto the stair rail as I race up the stairs. I turn to the left and head into the living room to talk to Jace. Sure enough, there he is, sitting in one of the blue armchairs with the TV remote in his hands. He has a hockey game on and I get distracted by it for 30 seconds before I remember what I came up here to do.

I walk behind him and while he's zoned out, I grab the remote from his hands and place it on pause. Jace shouts, "Hey!" and tries to grab it back, but I run into the casita and wait for him to come in after me…and he does. I shut the door after he gets in the room and he turns to face me. "You do realize you just trapped yourself, right?" Jace crosses his arms as he says this and I scoff. "You do realize you just walked into _my_ trap, right?" I mimic his expression and his actions as I say this. His eyes widen and he sighs. "Yes, Clary?"

"You obviously know what's happening with Izzy and Simon, don't you?"

"Yes," he responds and rolls his eyes.

"You know what the plan is, right?"

He once again responds, "Yes," and rolls his eyes.

"I heard you weren't going to help…think very carefully about how you answer this," I state, my voice a scary calm.

"That's right, I'm not going to help," he says stubbornly. I narrow my eyes at him and say, "Don't make me force you, Jace."

He scoffs and asks, "How do you plan to do that? You are like…1 foot smaller than me."

I smirk a very evil smirk and I see him visibly gulp. I slowly walk over to where he's standing and because of my height; I have to push him to sit on the bed to reach his ear. When he finally gets to the height I can reach his ear at, I whisper, "I will tell _everyone_ the story of when we were at the park back home and you pushed an old lady out of the way because a _duck_ was waddling towards you."

His face drops a little, but he still isn't breaking. "If that won't get you," I continue, "Then how about the time you were so hammered that you actually ran down 5th Ave. naked with antlers strapped to your head." He looks absolutely horrified and then says, "You have nothing to prove it."

"Oh, I don't?" I take out my phone and go to photos, "Then what is this?" I show him my phone and his face drops even farther when he sees that I have video evidence. "You know what Clary," he says this as he stands, "You are taking time away from me helping Rat-Boy try to gain back Izzy, so I must be going." With that he leaves and I hear him sprint down stairs.

With a satisfied smirk I walk out of the casita and turn the corner around the front door (they always leave it wide open) and I knock on the door to Izzy's closet. It takes Izzy a good minute to open the door and I don't ask why…I feel like I already know the answer. She has a sad expression on her face for a split second before she sees it's me. "Hey, Clary," she says happily as she leans against the door.

"Hey, Izzy! I-uh…heard about what happened with Simon," I say cautiously. Her face softens for a couple seconds and then it hardens and she says stubbornly, "I don't want to talk about him." She starts to close the door and I stick my foot in between the door and the wall to stop her from shutting it. It's not an easy task, but eventually I get her to open the door again.

"Iz, I wasn't suggesting that we talk about it. I was suggesting that, since it's still foggy and we can't see farther than 15 feet in front of us, we have dinner in the garage. Just you and me. We can talk about anything you want to. And…dear Lord, give me strength," I mumble before sighing as I continue, "I will let you dress me up…but not too dressy since we are going to be in the _garage_."

She doesn't even take a second to think about it before I am pulled into her room. She lets out a squeal as I am pushed onto her bed. She races into her closet as I look around the room. The bed is dark blue with white polka dots covering it. From what I can see, her actual closet is filled to the brim with clothes. Even though her closet looks full, that doesn't stop clothes from being thrown on every possible surface in this room. There's even clothes on the wall mounted TV and the lamps on the nightstands.

"Wait," Izzy pokes her head out of the closet, "What about Magnus? Shouldn't we invite him too? I'll go get him." She starts to walk out of her closet and heads towards the door. I jump off the bed and stand in front of her with my arms spread wide. "You can't," I say hurriedly.

"And why is that," she asks and crosses her arms.

"Because I already went up there to ask and the door was shut. I'm not about to interrupt that."

"Whatever, I'll go up there," she moves my arm out of the way as she says this. "What if you run into Simon on the way up there?" She freezes as I say this. I realize it's a low blow, but the plan won't work if she starts walking around the house looking for Magnus.

"I'll ask him later when we get to the garage and have everything set up," I try to reason with her and miraculously, she agrees. I sit back down on the bed and Izzy begins her work.

~.o.O.o.~

I check my mint green wristwatch and see that it's 7:30. "Done," I hear Izzy say above me. I stand and go into the bathroom so I can see what Izzy did to me. My dark crimson hair has been straightened and I am shocked that Izzy went for the more natural look for my eyes. I have a medium cat eye with beige eye shadow and the perfect amount of mascara to go with it. My lips have a pinkish hue to them and she left my cheeks untouched so you can still see the freckles across my nose. I am wearing white skinny jeans, a white crop top with red flowers that has flowy straps around my shoulders, and brown fringe sandals. "Wow, Izzy this is great!"

"I know, I'm amazing," she says as she starts to mess with herself now. "Hey Iz," I say trying to move this to the second part of the plan. "Yeah," she asks and she stops the mascara brush 2 inches away from her eye. "Would you mind if I tried?" She looks terrified. "Yes, I like my eyes and being able to see. You don't know how to apply makeup, so why don't you tell me what you'd like me to put on _myself_ and I'll do it…but if it's a god-awful combination, I'm taking it off."

"Okay," I agree and grab the eyeliner. "Only under your eye." She complies and I grab the liquid eyeliner. "Thin at the beginning, thick towards the end, thin coming off the eye." She does it perfectly and I grab the bronze sparkly eye shadow. "Only under the eye," I say again. I watch as she puts it on and then I grab the brown eye shadow. "Where your eyelashes start, faint along the top and finish the cat eye's curve upwards." It's coming together perfectly and I grab the gold eye shadow. "Just on the eyelids," I tell her and then grab the mascara. I don't need to tell her what to do with this and she does it.

"Okay, that's not so bad. Now what?" she asks. I grab the red lipstick and hand it to her. She applies it with ease and I hand her the blush. She applies it like she's been doing this forever, which I guess she has. "Done with the makeup," I tell her and she finally gets a good look at herself.

"Wow…this looks really good. What are you going to do to my hair?" I am about to respond when she cuts me off. "I will allow you to do my hair, just so long as it doesn't involve anything hot."

I laugh, "It won't. Now sit still." I pull her hair into a side braid and she nods her head. "Okay, this really isn't so bad. What about the clothes though?" I turn around and walk into the closet and throw her some black heels and a red dress.

"Ready to go?" I ask her when she's dressed. "You don't have that bad of taste Clary, how come your closet looks like…well, your closet?"

"These are clothes from _your_ closet…they all go together in some way. It wasn't that hard to choose," I tell her and we link arms as I lead her towards the stairs. I hold onto the black wooden rail and when we reach the bottom of the stairs I realize that I need to check on the plan really quickly. "Izzy, I think I saw your phone in the laundry room when I was looking around earlier," I tell her.

"I was looking for that! Thanks, Clary," she lets go of my arm and turns left while I turn right and stand in front of the garage door. I pull out my phone when I see Izzy go in the laundry room. I start to text Jace and hope he responds quickly.

 **New Text Message to: Jace**

 **Is it ready? –C**

Five seconds later I get a response.

 **Yep. –J**

 **Good cuz we're right outside the door. –C**

I put my phone in my back pocket right as Izzy comes out of the laundry room. "Ready," she asks and I respond, "Yep." Izzy reaches the door before me, even though I'm standing right by the door, and she opens it for me. I step into the garage and Izzy steps in after me. The moment the door shuts, we are plunged into complete darkness. "Clary, you stepped right by the light switch. Do you think you could turn it on? There's a step somewhere in front of me and I don't really want to trip on it."

"Of course," I say and flick the light switch on. Izzy gasps and her hands cover her mouth. She looks like she's about to cry and I don't blame her. I imagined how the garage would look, but I didn't think it would look like this. There are fairy lights all over the ceiling, giving the garage a romantic feel. I smile as I look up at them and then I look across the room. There are three tables set up with a white table cloth on them, touching the floor. The floor has red rose petals all over it. There's even some music playing in the background.

In front of the first table is Simon. He's in a tux shirt and jeans and is holding a rose in his hand. He starts coming towards Izzy and since I'm standing close to her, I take that as my cue to give them privacy. I step up on the driveway and head towards where Magnus is. "You really went above and beyond Mags. This is amazing. Thank you," I tell him and then I get a look at Izzy's black G-wagon. There are fairy lights and roses on that too. "This is only possible because you thought of it, so thank _you_ Biscuit." Magnus pulls me into a hug and I can already feel the glitter on me.

When Magnus releases me he gets a good look at me. "Wow, you look amazing!"

"Thanks. This was part of the plan though. I had to let Iz dress me up so I could dress _her_ up."

"Alright, we already have dinner on the table so I'm going to eat," Magnus says and then goes to sit at one of the tables. I see Alec a few feet away from me and I head over to where he is. "Thanks for your help, Alec. This wouldn't have been possible if you didn't help too."

"I was happy to help. I hate seeing Izzy like that," he says and then walks over to the table where Magnus is sitting. I look over at Simon and Izzy and see that they have moved over to the middle table. I smile to myself and think about how perfect this has gone. I don't think the night could get any better…but it does.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

I take one last glance around the room and notice the couples smiling happily at each other. I finally move from my spot in the corner and sit at the last table. I notice the detail in how the tables are set and I know immediately that Magnus did that. The candles in the round glasses with the rose petals surrounding it, the placement of the silverware, and the way each table is places at least 10 feet away from the others to give the feeling of privacy.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" I am pulled out of my thoughts by Jace. He's standing by the chair across from me wearing a white shirt and black jeans. I nod my head and I can't help but notice the muscles in his arms as he pulls the chair out to sit in it. "Where were you? After I turned on the lights and looked at how everything was set up, I went to talk to Magnus and Alec but I didn't see you," I say curiously.

"I was messing with the lights on the car."

"Oh," I say as I look down at the food on the plate. "Where did you get this? It looks amazing," I ask, looking down at the pasta in front of me. "Magnus got it somewhere," Jace says matter-of-factly. I look up at the ceiling again and ask, "How did you do this?"

"I had to figure out how to string all of the lights up while Magnus told me where to put them and Alec was out getting stuff," Jace says.

I stop looking up at the ceiling and look at Jace as I ask, "You put all these up yourself?"

"Yep. And I put all the tables in the specific order they're in now. By the time Alec got back with everything, all he had to do was help Magnus arrange stuff."

"So you did all the heavy lifting?"

He nods his head, "Unfortunately." I laugh and start eating. We talk about anything and everything as we eat and I have a smile on my face the entire time.

~.o.O.o.~

 **Jace POV:**

"Jace, can you open this for me?" I look up at him from my position by the car and see that it's a can of glitter.

"Magnus, we are not putting glitter _anywhere_ ," I say.

"But Jace…glitter goes with everything."

"Um-no. I am not opening one container of glitter. You have no idea how hard it is to get out of clothes…and hair!" Magnus crosses his arms and glares at me. I repeat the action back to him and we stand like that for a good minute before my phone vibrates. I get it out of my back pocket and look at the text.

 **New Text Message from: Clary**

 **Is it ready? –C**

I type my response all the while telling Magnus that, "I am not putting glitter anywhere near me."

 **Yep –J**

Her response is immediate.

 **Good cuz we're right outside the door. –C**

"Guys, they're right outside the door," I say and the lights go off. No one is breathing. We're all waiting for Clary to turn on the lights. I know that Alec and Magnus have moved to the corner of the room while I go behind Izzy's car. I peek my head around the right side of it. This side has a direct line of sight to the light switch and the door.

I see the door open and Clary comes in first. I'd know her by her size anywhere. Then I see Izzy come in the room. The moment the door shuts, we are all plunged into total darkness. We covered the windows so it's really dark in here. "Clary, you stepped right by the light switch. Do you think you could turn it on? There's a step somewhere in front of me and I don't really want to trip on it," I hear Izzy say and then Clary speaks. "Of course," she says and flicks the light switch on.

I hear Izzy gasp and I see her cover her mouth with her hands, but I don't pay attention to her any longer. All my attention goes to Clary. She looks amazed and I am shocked at what she's wearing. Somehow, Izzy got her into white jeans with holes in the knees and a _crop top_. How she managed that, I have no idea. Clary must have _really_ wanted this to work.

Some of the lights on the car are flickering so I decide to work on them while everyone gets settled. By the time I finish messing with the lights, I see that everyone is sitting down and is starting on their dinner. There weren't any tables for four people so Clary and I will have to sit together. It's not like I have an issue with that and I know Clary doesn't either. We've been best friends ever since we were 5.

I walk over to where Clary is sitting down and I can see that she's still in amazement from how the garage looks. "Do you mind if I sit here?" I pull her out of her thoughts and she nods. I pull out the chair and as I sit in it Clary asks, "Where were you? After I turned on the lights and looked at how everything was set up, I went to talk to Magnus and Alec but I didn't see you."

"I was messing with the lights on the car," I tell her.

"Oh," she says as she looks down at the food on the plate. "Where did you get this? It looks amazing," she asks, looking down at the pasta. "Magnus got it somewhere," I say matter-of-factly. She looks up at the ceiling again and asks, "How did you do this?"

"I had to figure out how to string all of the lights up while Magnus told me where to put them and Alec was out getting stuff," I say.

She stops looking up at the ceiling and looks at me as she asks, "You put all these up yourself?"

"Yep. And I put all the tables in the specific order they're in now. By the time Alec got back with everything, all he had to do was help Magnus arrange stuff," I say and have flashbacks of those horrible moments.

"So you did all the heavy lifting," she asks me with one eyebrow raised.

I nod my head, "Unfortunately." She laughs and starts eating. We talk about anything and everything as we eat and I have a smile on my face the entire time because of her smiling.

~.o.O.o.~

 **Clary POV:**

Dinner was amazing and Magnus and Alec agreed to cleaning the dishes and getting the table decorations out of here. That's it. They're not helping with anything else. That means _I_ have to clean everything up and put everything away. I'm fairly positive that Jace isn't going to help me clean up unless I have to threaten him. Izzy and Simon already went inside to…do whatever it is they're planning on doing.

I decide to start cleaning up and grab a broom to clean up all the rose petals. It doesn't take as long as I thought it would and I finish sweeping within 30 minutes. I take the fairy lights off of Izzy's car and grab a step stool to get the lights off of the ceiling. This is a long job though. My arms constantly get tired and I have to put them down every few minutes. How did Jace do this?

I've finished about ¾ of the taking the lights down when Jace comes in. "I was wondering where you were," he says.

"Yeah, an hour later," I scoff. He steps up onto the driveway and starts to walk towards me. I am in the middle of the garage, trying to unhook lights from every possible surface on the ceiling. "Why didn't you ask me to help you?"

My eyes nearly pop out of my head at that statement. "You? Help _willingly?_ Yeah, I'd like to see the day," I scoff again as I tell him this. He starts to defend himself, but I'm not having any of it. "Jace, we've been best friends ever since we were 5…I know you."

He shrugs his shoulders and moves even closer. "Want me to help you with that," he asks. I'm trying to reach a strand of lights that is just out of my reach. "No, I can get it myself," I tell him and push myself to reach it. I'm a klutz on the ground, so elevated a couple feet in the air can't be any better…and it's not.

My fingertips touch the lights…and then I feel the steps coming right out from underneath me. I somehow manage to fall backwards and I gasp. I feel myself falling and then I stop falling abruptly. I open my eyes, only to see two golden pools filled with worry staring back at me. "You okay?"

"Yeah…I'm fine," I respond breathlessly. That's when I realize how close we are…how close our lips are. Jace notices it too because we both stop breathing…waiting for the other to move first. A loud bang brings us back to our senses and I jump out of Jace's arms. "I-uh- thanks for helping me not fall," I tell him while looking down at the lights. I go on my knees and start to wrap up the lights, trying to hide my face, which is no doubt competing with my red hair.

"Yeah…uh-it's really not that big of a deal…" Jace says. I can feel how awkward it is in the room. This is the second time this has happened. I-I just don't know what to make of it. It was like we were being pulled together by an invisible force. Something was drawing me to him…but that sound brought us both back to earth.

"Well, I'm going to leave the rest of this for the others to do and I'm going to go to bed," I say as I head towards the door. "You coming?"

He nods his head and we head out the garage door. He starts up the stairs first. When we both get to the landing and are about to head up the second part of the stairs, the lights go out. It seems like the lights went out in our neighborhood because the door leading outside on the landing has no light coming in. Its pitch black.

I step back to see if I can see anything and, of course, I step off of the last stair we came up. I gasp and as I start to fall backwards, I feel Jace grab my arms. He pulls me into his chest to prevent me from falling. I look up to thank him just as he looks down to ask if I'm alright and our lips touch. We jump apart and this time, I jump into the wall. My lips feel strangely warm and I feel tingly all over. My legs feel weak, even though out lips touched…we didn't even kiss.

My hands go to my lips immediately and I look at the area where I think Jace is…it's absolutely black right now so I really have no idea where he is. The moon seems to have come into our line of vision so I can now see the rest of the stairs leading up. I grab a hold of the stair rail and head upstairs. When I reach the top of the stairs, I turn right and head towards the casita. I forget about the step down to the front part of the house and trip a little bit. I gain my balance back and finish my trek to the front door. I open the front door and shut it after me when I get outside in the entrance area. I forget about the two steps down and trip on those too.

I reach the door to the casita and just as I reach the doorknob, I hear Jace shut the front door. Just as I'm about to open the door, Jace grabs my arms and turns me around to face him. I wasn't expecting what he did next.

I look up at him from under my lashes and see that his eyes have an undertone of worry and…nervousness? I stand completely still as his hands move up from my shoulders to my cheeks. I part my lips to drag more air into my lungs and I see his eyes dart from my eyes to my lips. My breathing becomes shallower when I see in his eyes that he's made a decision. All of a sudden Jace crashes his lips to mine.

My eyes flutter closed and I put my hands on his arms to steady myself. I can feel all the muscles in his arms and when we part for air, I inhale sharply. He pulls himself fully away from me and I feel cold immediately. He looks panicked and he starts to apologize. "Clary…I'm so sorry…I-I don't know what came over me…I'm-." I cut him off as I wrap my arms around his neck and pull his lips to mine again. His arms wrap around my bare waist and we stand there, kissing in between the front door and the wooden gate…in front of the door to the casita, for what feels like the best version of forever.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

"Hey, Clary," I'm sitting at the breakfast bar eating cereal when Izzy comes up the stairs, "Did you know that there was a power outage last night?" The power outage…that's when Jace and I kissed. Before I can totally get lost in my mind I answer her, "Yeah, I was um-coming up the stairs when it happened." He seems to accept my answer and as she pours herself a cup of coffee and I get lost in my thoughts.

Kissing Jace couldn't have felt more right than it did. It felt like I found the place that was made for me…Jace's embrace. It's weird to feel this way though…I've never felt this way before. Yes, I have always hated the girls he's been with, but that's also because they are total bitches. They've never been nice to me and I have no issue calling them out on their shit…maybe that's why they don't like me….I'm not like them. They've called me anything but perfect and wonder why Jace even hangs out with me and I have retaliated with calling them whores, sluts, etc. But when I was in Jace's arms with his lips on mine, actually kissing unlike the event on the stairs, I felt perfect. "Clary!"

"What? What did I miss?" I ask Izzy. She rolls her eyes and looks at me curiously. "What were you so in your head about? I asked when you wanted to go down to the beach," she says and then walks over towards me from her position by the coffee maker. She rests her arms on the white marble counter top and I feel my face heating as I remember the way he held me…as if I was the last breath of air he'd ever receive. "Clary," Izzy snaps her fingers in front of my face and I leave my head. "Sorry," I respond sheepishly. "How about we go now?" Izzy asks. I nod my head and get up to put my bowl in the sink. I start heading towards the casita to change into my swimsuit and just as I get to the front door, Izzy states, "If you don't come out looking amazing, I'm giving you one of my swimsuits."

"Got it," I say as I open the front door. I don't trip on the steps this time and open the door to the casita without a hitch. I head into the closet, grab my swimsuit, sandals, and a cover up. I head into the bathroom and straighten my hair because I know Izzy will kill me if I don't at least try to do something with my hair. I change into my swimsuit and put on my sandals and cover up before I head into the room to grab my Ray-Bans. I open the door and start to head outside the room when I realize I forgot my phone. I turn and grab my phone off the counter and I walk into something…someone hard.

The momentum knocks me off my feet and from my position on the ground, I look up at who it is that I ran into and…it's Jace. "Are you okay," he asks as he picks me up off the floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I respond and then I get a good look at him. I can tell he's been running because he's all sweaty and is shirtless. Just as I finish taking in what he's wearing, I look up and see that he's taking in what I'm wearing. I will admit to seeing him differently after last night and from the look in his eyes, I can see that he sees me in a different light too. I cross my arms over my chest and he looks back up at my eyes. "Um…Izzy and I were going to go to the beach. Would you like to come?"

"Yeah, that'd be fun…I'll be down there in a couple minutes," he responds. I nod my head and head out the door. I hear him shut the door to the casita and I lean against the wall to catch my breath. Why is this happening? He's my best friend…I'm not supposed to be affected like this by my best friend. I take a deep breath and open the door to the house. I head down stairs and go into the exercise room, only to narrowly miss being hit with glitter. "Magnus!" he looks at me and grins, "Why was I about to be assaulted with glitter?"

"Well, biscuit, my swim shorts don't have enough glitter on them, so I was trying to open some glitter to put on them," Magnus says as if it was the simplest thing in the world. I shake my head and see Alec standing outside on one of the two balconies, looking at the ocean. I walk outside before I get hit by glitter, this time on purpose, and look at the view. "Wow," I breathe out, looking at how far I can see. I can see Catalina Island from here, and parts of the beach around the side of the house next door to us. "Welcome to Laguna Beach, Clary," I hear Alec next to me say.

"It's beautiful," I say and look down at the beach. I see three umbrellas set at least 25 feet apart from each other and some towels under each umbrella. "Magnus and I already set everything up this morning," Alec says, "And Izzy designated which umbrella belongs to which two people. She fought with Magnus for the pink umbrella, but Izzy won in the end and now Magnus and I have the blue umbrella." I laughed as I said, "You know that Magnus is going to put glitter on the umbrella, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Alec shakes his head and laughs as he says this and then adds, "You and Jace have the dark green umbrella." I nod my head and Izzy comes out with Simon at her heels. She's wearing a pink bikini and Simon keeps on looking at her. _Way to be discreet buddy._ "Where's Magnus?" I hear Alec ask.

"He went upstairs to get more glitter," Izzy says and then looks at me and says, "Please tell me you have a cute swimsuit underneath that cover up." She walks past me and starts to lead the way down the stairs to the beach with me after her. "Izzy, I'm wearing the swimsuit that you got me for my birthday," I tell her.

"Oh, you mean the one I got you from VS?" I feel my face heat up at the mention of that store. "Yes, Izzy...that one." We are almost at the beach; the only thing separating us from the beach is a gate and 10 more steps. As she's opening the gate, she asks, "Which one the black tease halter, or the teal flirt bandeau?"

"Geez, Izzy! The black one," I tell her and I know that my face is no doubt competing with my red hair. "Ooh," Izzy says as we finally get to the beach. She goes to the left and I head to the right. When I get to the green umbrella, I take off my cover up and sit on a towel as I take off my sandals. I look up at the gate, only to see Magnus and Alec open the gate and walk down the stairs. I look under the stairs (because I'm in a corner pocket with privacy) and see that Simon and Izzy are at their umbrella and Alec and Magnus are at theirs. I lie down on the towel and close my eyes. I lay there for a good 5 minutes before someone interrupts my peace.

"Hey, I haven't seen you around here before," I open my eyes and see that the guy who is talking to me is the complete opposite of Jace. Where Jace is golden, this guy is dark…dark eyes that could make Izzy's brown eyes look light, and black hair. "That's because I've never been here before…I'm visiting here with my friends for summer," I tell him. He smiles and gestures to the towel that I'm sitting on, "Would you mind if I sat?" I nod my head and he sits next to me. "I'm Sebastian," he says and puts out a hand. I shake it and respond, "Clary."

We have a good time, talking and laughing before Jace comes. "Hey, I'm Sebastian," he says and puts an arm possessively around my shoulder as he puts out a hand to shake. Jace doesn't take his hand and Sebastian puts his hand back beside him. Jace is tense. I can see that much from his stance…but I don't know what he's thinking. And he looks really good in the black swim shorts he's wearing. Jace still doesn't say anything to Sebastian so I fill Sebastian in. "Sebastian, this is my best friend Jace. Jace, this is Sebastian."

"Oh, he's your best friend?" Sebastian asks and looks at me curiously.

"Yeah, he has been since we were little," I tell him. Jace is still not saying anything. "Hey, Sebastian," I get his attention away from Jace, "I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah," he says and he stands. He and Jace stare at each other for a couple seconds and then Sebastian leaves. "Jace, what's up?" he doesn't respond and starts to walk away. I stand up and start to walk after him. I turn to see where Izzy, Simon, Alec, and Magnus are and I see that they are all in the water. Totally preoccupied with each other. Jace starts walking around the side of the house, still facing the beach, and I follow him. "Jace!" I try to get his attention, but he keeps on walking.

He turns around the corner of the house and I follow him. I don't see him anymore so I walk slowly and when I walk by a pass through between two houses, someone grabs my arm and pulls me in the pass through and up against the wall. I don't have time to see who it is that pulled me in between the houses because they press their lips against mine, but I know who it is immediately…Jace. His lips press against mine hungrily and I give in. We have to part for air soon and he rests his head against mine. "I take back everything we talked about last night."

"What," I open my eyes shocked, "but you said-."

"I know what I said Clary," he cuts me off, "but after seeing you with Sebastian, it made me want to take back everything we discussed last night… Just think about it okay…please." And with that, he pulls away from me and leaves our place in between the houses. _Everything we discussed last night…_

~.o.O.o.~

 _We break apart breathless. "Don't be sorry Jace," I say and he pulls me into another kiss. He pulls me into him tighter and I gladly press into him. All of a sudden, the lights go back on and we spring apart. We look at each other with wide eyes. "Whatever that was, it can't happen again…we're best friends we're not supposed to…do this!" Jace says and I agree. "We-we can't do this." No matter how good it feels._

 _We head inside the casita and he grabs his pajamas and heads into the bathroom to change while I head into the closet to change. When I finish changing, I open the door, only to see Jace sitting in bed. When he sees me he moves slower and I move slowly over to the bed. I get in and pull the covers over me. All of a sudden the lights go out and I'm left alone with my thoughts._

~.o.O.o.~

All day long after the kiss in between the two houses, I tried to get him alone again to voice my thoughts but it's harder than you'd think. I can't make it farther than 5 feet away from Izzy without her pulling me back to her. This lasted all day…and Jace wasn't helping either. He kept hanging out by Alec and I couldn't get him alone.

"Hey, Simon, Alec, Magnus and I are going to get lunch at The Orange Inn. Want anything," I hear Izzy ask me, just as I'm about to head over to where Jace is. I groan inwardly. "No, I'm fine, thanks for asking though." I put my Ray-Bans on and discreetly watch them go up the stairs. After they go up the stairs I look around for Jace and see him coming out of the ocean. I feel my sunglasses slip down my nose, but I do nothing to push them up as he starts coming towards me. An idea pops into my head and I quickly write in the sand 'upstairs.' I quickly run up the stairs and I'm breathless by the time I reach the top and I turn around to see him right on my heels.

I run inside the house and I head into the laundry room. I hear him come in the house and I hear him getting closer. He pauses right outside the door and I whisper, "Hey." He turns to face me and before he can say anything I walk up to him and wrap my arms around his neck. He looks down at me and I pull his lips down to meet mine. "Yes," I say against his lips.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instrument characters seen in this story.**

Jace and I break apart, my arms still around his neck and his are around my waist. "Really," Jace asks and I nod. He presses his lips to mine again and we kiss for a while longer. When we break apart again, I pull away and head towards the doors. "We should probably head back down to the beach and watch all the stuff," I tell him. He nods and we both head down the _many_ stairs to the beach. When we get to the hot sand, I make a beeline for the towel and umbrella 5 feet away.

"Ouch! Watch out for the hot sand Jace," I look up and see that he's staring down at me from the landing above. He smirks and walks down the last couple steps as he says, "It can't be that hot. You are probably making a big deal about nothing." He reaches the last step and walks slowly. When he gets to the cool sand under the umbrella, I see him relax a little. "So, that sand isn't very hot," I smirk at him. My attempt to bring him down a few notches doesn't work and he returns the smirk with one of his own. "Not at all."

"Really? Well, then why, unless I was imagining things, did your body relax when your feet hit the cool sand?" I raise an eyebrow and lower my head so I can look at him over my sunglasses. He opens his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, "Also, if you give me some BS answer-."

He cuts me off by moving so his lips are inches away from mine and whispers, "Surely you won't do or say anything that could harm your boyfriends reputation…would you? You are _my_ girlfriend, so whatever you say about me goes right back to you." I felt my insides quiver when he called me ' _his girlfriend.'_ Wow I never thought those words would come out of Jace's mouth, directed at _me._

"Jace," I say breathlessly and press my lips to his. I meant it to be a quick kiss, but he made it a long passionate kiss. It almost pains me to say this, but I continue, "If you give me a BS answer as to why the sand wasn't hot…I won't kiss you until you admit to me that I was right." I step away from him as I say this and the shock is evident on his face.

"You wouldn't," he narrows his eyes at me to try to see if I'm faking or not. I'm not.

"Jace," I begin, "Not only am I your girlfriend, I am also your best friend, so you should know that when I say I'll do something I actually do it."

"Fine, Clary, you were right. The sand was hot." He crosses his arms and rolls his eyes.

"Thank you," I say as I sit down on the towel. Jace sits down next to me and puts his fingers under my chin to take my gaze away from the waves to his face. "Can I kiss you or am I not allowed," he asks and I roll my eyes. He pulls my lips to his and I melt. We part for air, but that doesn't last long. Soon Jace pulls my lips back to his and the kiss is more passionate than the last. It continues like this for the next couple minutes until the kiss is _very_ intense. At one point, Jace gently asked for entrance on my bottom lip which I happily gave.

I'm not going to lie…things escalated kinda quickly. I have no issue with it though. I'm sitting in Jace's lap with my hands in his hair, our lips pressed together hungrily. Jace's hands are holding me to him like I'm the last breath of air he'll ever receive. I'm enjoying myself, but that joy is short-lived because soon, we hear Izzy shouting at Magnus about the fashion choices on Project Runway.

"NO, I disagree. I think she should have won," we spring apart as we hear Izzy and Magnus come closer.

"No, Izzy. She didn't use enough sparkles _or_ glitter. There's no way she would have won." Jace leaps up and runs into the ocean as we hear Izzy and Magnus stop walking on the stairs and turn to each other to fully prove a point.

"Guys! You've been doing this since we left the restaurant. Izzy, she didn't win get over it," I hear Alec say exasperatedly, "And Magnus…we know who won. We know it was the guy you wanted to win and not Izzy's girl. Stop gloating." With that I hear them coming back down the stairs and I put my cover up on along with my sunglasses. I grab my sandals in my hands and stand up.

"Thank God you guys are here. Jace and I are _starving,"_ I tell them and start walking towards the ocean. "I'm going to go get Jace so we can have a lunch while you guys watch all the stuff," I stop walking towards the ocean and turn to look at them. I see Izzy go sit on her towel and start to tan.

"Okay, hurry back and don't have a large lunch. We're having dinner on the balcony," Izzy says and then calls Simon over to put more sun block on her. I look over at Magnus and Alec and see Magnus copy what Izzy's doing. I laugh to myself and continue on my journey to the ocean to get Jace.

I get to the water and look around for Jace. I see him on the other side of the house where he kissed me earlier and I walk towards him. You can't see any of our set up from here so I look around for Jace again, only to see some blonde bimbo talking to him. He looks super uncomfortable. I scoff to myself and go to the edge of the water. "Jace," I call out and his head snaps up. He sees me and doesn't even tell the girl he has to go, he just starts wading through the water to get to me. The blonde girl looks shocked and starts after him. Jace reaches me and grabs my hand as he leans in for a kiss. The blonde girl gets out of the water and makes a beeline for me and Jace. She reaches us just as the kiss starts to gain in intensity and she clears her throat.

"Excuse me, but you are so far out of his league you can't even see the ballpark. Run along honey and go play on the play set," she snarks at me and tries to pull Jace's hand out of mine. I feel Jace grip my hand harder and I return the grip. She looks at Jace and tells him, "She's ugly. Don't you want someone like me sweet cheeks?"

This is the only time I am actually thankful for the bitches I have to deal with at school. Before Jace can even open his mouth I ask her faking tears, "You think I'm ugly?"

"Yes," she says and then adds, "Did I not make myself clear? You're ugly."

Perfect set up. I smirk as I say, "Good, I was trying to look like you today." She gasps and before Jace and I walk away, I add, "Oh, and just because I'm not a slut who's slept with half the boys on this beach doesn't mean I'm out of his league, _honey._ "

Jace pulls me away from her after that and we go up some stairs. The stairs led to one of the streets filled with shops. He leads me into a little alley between the shops and kisses me hard as I'm pressed against the wall. When we part for air Jace asks, "Where did you learn comebacks like that?"

"You know the sluts back home," I ask and he nods, "Well, they always say stuff like that to me because I hang out with you, but little did they know that I bite back."

He shakes his head and asks, "Why didn't you tell me about that?"

I shrug, "I didn't want to be some damsel in distress that always came to you for help with those skinny bitches."

He kisses me passionately again and whispers against my lips, "You could never be a damsel in distress. You're much too Clary for that." I laugh when he pulls away and he wraps an arm around my shoulders as we leave the alley. We walk until we reach a 'Johnny Rocket's.'

"Jace, let's eat here!" He chuckles at my enthusiasm and we start walking towards the entrance. We walk in and sit in a secluded booth for two people in the corner. "So this is like our first date, I guess," Jace says. Wow, I never thought of that. "You're right," I say and a very awkward silence falls on the table. "So…" I begin.

"So…" Jace continues. We sit like that for a while and then the waitress comes over. "HI, I'm Helen. I'll be your server today, so if you have any questions…please ask." She pauses at the end because I'm positive she can feel the tension between us. "What would you like to drink today," she asks and looks between Jace and I. "I'll have water," I say.

"I will to," Jace says and she leaves to get us our waters. She comes back with the water and asks, "Do you know what you want or would you like some more time?"

"Um, a little more time if that's fine," I hear Jace say. I'm looking down at the menu on the table so I wasn't looking up at him. "Of course," I hear Helen say and then she walks off. Jace and I sit in silence for a while longer and then (thank you universe…what did I do to deserve this) Jace reaches for water and it spills. The water spills right off the table and onto my lap. Thankfully I'm in a swimsuit with a cover up, so if anyone asks, I went swimming earlier. "Shit, Clary I'm sorry," Jace says and fumbles for napkins. At this time Helen decides to come over and looks at me as she says, "I'll show you where the bathroom is and then I'll get something to clean this up."

I get up and follow her to the bathroom. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask. Is this your last date?" I laugh at her question and respond, "No, it's our first."

"Wow," she says and looks shocked. She has very blue eyes and a short blonde bob. "Trust me, there's more to this story than you'd think," I tell her and she looks curious. "Well, Jace and I are best friends. The feeling is mutual between us, so…"

"Oh, that makes more sense…but why is it so awkward?"

"I-I really don't know," I tell her and she half smiles.

"I better clean up the table. But promise me that there won't be any more messes," she says jokingly. I laugh and she leaves me in the bathroom. _Why_ _is_ _it so awkward between us?_

I finish drying myself off and head back out to the table, only to see Jace with his head down on the table. I laugh quietly to myself and say, "Jace." His head shoots up and he looks at me worriedly. Before he can open his mouth to say something, I hold up my hand and take the seat across from him. "Why is this so awkward between us? We've been best friends since we were 5. We know everything about each other. Why don't we treat this like normal? Nothing special besides the occasion we're here for," I state and he ponders it.

"You're right Clary, but this is supposed to be special. It's our first date," Jace looks down.

"Jace…I don't need anything but _you._ The fact that this date is with you means a lot to me."

I steal his move and put my fingers under his chin to lift his gaze to mine. I lean over the table and kiss him. When I sit back down in my seat, he looks happier and practically repeats my words to him, "I don't need anything but _you_ either, Clary. I'm very happy that this date is with you also."

I smile at him and amazingly enough, the rest of our date goes by smoothly.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

After our lunch, Jace and I are heading back to the group and just as we get to the general area where they are…"Clary!" Jace's attempts to warm me are futile. I get water dumped over my head. I turn around to see Izzy and Magnus holding the bucket and they grin sheepishly at me. I keep my face expressionless and I head over to the towel to take off my sunglasses and cover up. I place my sandals down on the towel and turn to look for Izzy and Magnus. I know that they are hiding from me, but all I see is Jace. He's staring at me and this is different than earlier.

"When I saw you earlier, I was kinda holding back since you were still my best friend…but now that you're not…" he smirks at me and I shiver. I'm going to say that it's from the ocean breeze, but that might not be the entire truth. The breeze _was_ a hot one anyway. "Now the real question is: why are you all wet?"

"Izzy and Magnus thought it'd be funny to dump water on me," I tell him and he laughs. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach Izzy and Magnus that they don't want to mess with me," I say and turn to see them coming at me with water again. I stand with my arms crossed, waiting for them to look up and notice me staring at them. When they do look up, they both freeze in their tracks. I raise one eyebrow and their eyes widen. I see Alec coming behind Magnus with another bucket of water and I keep Iz and Mags occupied. I send them a deadly smirk and then Alec dumps the water on Magnus.

Magnus gasps and whirls around to see Alec running into the ocean, laughing. Magnus runs after him and I make a mental note to thank Alec later. I look back at Izzy and see that she's also run into the water. She gives me the 'come at me' hand motion and I run into the water after her. We are on a sand bank, so it makes life easier on me, being 6 inches shorter than her.

I get in front of her and she splashes water in my face. I spit seawater out of my mouth and take the bucket, now full of water, from behind my back and I throw it on her. I run back out of the water and throw the bucket to Jace who catches it easily. I see Simon standing next to him and look to my left to see Magnus and Alec still playing around in the water. I turn around just as Izzy gets to me and I duck under her arms as she tries to grab me. I laugh and run deeper into the water.

When I stop running, the water is at my hips and I turn around to face Izzy. I may have long legs (according to my mother) but Izzy has longer legs because of her height on me. She catches up fast and tries to dive at me so I fall in the water with her. I narrowly miss her and turn to face the ocean. She stands up and laughs as she spits the salty water out of her mouth. I laugh at her attempts to get me in the water and I see a wave coming right behind her. This is a bigger one than what we had a couple minutes ago, so I realize that high tide is starting. Izzy seems oblivious to the wave behind her so I use this to my advantage. I purposefully miss when trying to swipe her legs out from under her and she decides to try.

At the perfect moment, she tries to swipe my legs out from under me and I purposefully fall. Under the water, I miss the wave. When come up for air, I see another wave behind me. That wave is already peaking, so I try my best to body surf in. I somewhat succeed and on the beach, I see Izzy sitting down, coughing. She has sand _covering_ her hair and I laugh. She looks up at me and glares. I try to keep an expressionless face, but I fail and start to crack a smile. She does too and we both start laughing.

I look up just as Jace and Simon run over and Jace looks worried until he sees that I'm laughing. I _am_ on my hands and knees so I could see how he'd be worried. I look up at Simon and see that his face is absolutely pale. I am still laughing with Izzy so she hasn't realized her hair yet. Jace looks me over and sends me the 'why are you laughing so hard' look. I know that Izzy is laughing because of what happened, but I am laughing because of her hair. I nod my head over to Izzy and Jace looks at her.

His eyes widen and then he starts laughing. Simon still looks pale and Izzy looks up to notice him while Jace and I are still laughing. "What's wrong Simon?" I hear Izzy ask and before he can respond, I tell Izzy, "I'm going to go upstairs and shower." I look up at the sky and see that the sun is starting to go down and I want a shower before Izzy steals all the hot water. "It's getting kinda late, so…" I trail off and then tell Izzy, "You might want to go in the ocean and go underwater."

She looks at me curiously and I point to her hair. She reaches up and touches her hair. Her eyes go wide and she gasps as she gets up and runs into the water with Simon on her heels. Jace and I start laughing again and we head back to our little beach set up so we can put it all away. "Did you see her face," Jace laughs out. I nod as I laugh and start to pick up the towels. Jace puts the umbrella down and we compose our selves momentarily, but the moment we look at each other again, we start laughing.

We head upstairs just as Izzy gets out of the water and when we're almost at the top I hear Izzy shout, "I _will_ get revenge Fray!" It's hard to look over your shoulder when you have two towels on you and even harder when you are carrying up an umbrella. Yes it's in a case, but it's big and clunky so when Jace tried to turn he really couldn't. "Just keep going, Fray," he says and half smiles up at me.

"Of course, _Wayland_ ," I say and he laughs.

We walk up the last couple of stairs and when we reach the top of the stairs, I shake out the towels and fold them on top of a lounge chair. Jace put the umbrella down next to the doors and walks around the right side of the house. I follow him and he turns on the hose. We take turns rinsing the sand off of each other and when Jace shuts the hose off, a cool breeze goes through the side of the house, chilling us instantly. "Good Lord its cold," Jace says as we come down the steps on the side of the house and I open the doors. I nod my head and we stand in silence for a few minutes while we air dry.

"Well, I'm dry so I'm going to head upstairs and shower," I tell him as I step off the towel on the floor. He catches my arm and turns me to look at him. "If you shower upstairs, then where am I going to shower?"

"Jace, waiting won't kill you," I tell him and he smirks.

"You sure about that Fray?" He looks at me and raises one eyebrow.

"Yes, Wayland. I'm sure," I look up at him as I say this and he looks like he does not believe me. Before he can open his mouth to say something, I run up the stairs and into the casita. I hear him on my heels and when I open the door to the casita, I shut the door and lock it. I quickly get my clothes out of the closet and head into the bathroom. I put my clothes on the counter and head back into the main part of the casita. I open the top of the door and see Jace standing there with his arms crossed. "What," I ask.

"You play dirty," he accuses.

"Jace, you should know this…we've been best friends for 13 years. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take a shower." With that I run into the bathroom and lock the door behind me. I know he can get in the casita, but I locked the bathroom so he couldn't steal my clothes _or_ my towel like he does when he loses the bathroom game.

I try my best to shower quickly and when I get out of the shower, I grab my towel from the towel rack and decide to take mercy on Jace and not dry my hair now. I grab the blow dryer and my clothes and open the door, only to see Jace standing right in front of me. "Jeez Jace," I say as I tighten my hold on the towel, "You scared the crap out of me."

He laughs and says, "Good, you were in there forever!"

"Jace I was only in there for 10 minutes. If you want me to be in there longer, I could always go dry my hair in there," I start backing up into the bathroom again and he grabs my arm.

"That won't be necessary," he pulls me towards him and then steps to my left. I move to my right and he goes in the bathroom. I laugh to myself as I hear him lock the door behind me and then I hear the shower start up. I plug the hair dryer into an outlet in between the doors to the bathroom and the closet and start to dry my hair. I look at the clock on my nightstand and see that it's around 5:30. The others should be up for dinner soon. That's when a horrible thought crosses my mind. Izzy may like to cook, but she's the _worst_ cook _ever_!

I finish drying my hair as quickly as I can and run into the closet to throw on some clothes. I put my pajamas back in the closet (I know Izzy wouldn't be happy if I came to dinner in pajamas) and throw on some shorts, a black tank top, a blue flannel shirt, and my grey converse. I quickly put my hair up in a messy bun and practically fly out the door. I slam the door to the casita _and_ the front door in my hurry to get in the kitchen.

 _How much time do I have?_ I walk over to the balcony and I get sidetracked by the view of Catalina and at the height of this balcony, I can see over the neighbors' roof to the other side of the beach. I stop looking at the gorgeous view and walk over to the railing and look down. I see them all packing up and I run back inside. I make a plan for dinner in my head and I start searching the cabinet for the ingredients. I place everything I need on the counter next to me and when I turn back to shut the door I nearly run into Jace. "Whoa there," he grabs my arm to steady me and smirks, "What's with all the rushing?"

"Well, I decided to make Spaghetti for dinner to avoid the possibility of Izzy making dinner," I tell him as I turn to walk over to the fridge. I don't hear any comment from him and turn to look at him before I open the fridge. I notice the still damp wavy hair and I see the wet spots on his dark blue shirt from his hair. He's in black jeans and when I look back up at his face I see that it's pale. "What can I do to help you," he asks hurriedly. He's had Izzy cooking before and if you've had it once, you _definitely_ don't want it again. Just as I'm about to tell him what he can do, Magnus pokes his head around the wall and Alec stands next to him. They are both still in their swim shorts and Magnus asks, "What are you doing?"

"Well, Magnus," I start, "To avoid the inevitable food poisoning from Izzy making us dinner, I decided to help us all out and make dinner instead."

"You are a life saver," Alec says before grabbing Magnus and pulling him around the corner and back up the stairs. I turn to Jace and tell him what he can do to help, "You start on the pasta and meatballs, I'll start on the sauce." I see him open his mouth to say something and I stop him right there, "And before you complain about me giving you two jobs while I have one, let me just tell you that it takes longer and you have to pay more attention to the sauce. "

~.o.O.o.~

"Ooh, what smells so good?" I hear Izzy ask as she comes up the stairs. Then I hear Jace mumble so only I can hear, "Not your cooking." I try to stifle my laughter and play it off as a cough when Izzy walks in. "Oh, Clary," I look up at her, "I was going to make dinner tonight…oh well, I'll do it tomorrow." She then walks out to the balcony and sits in a chair. Simon walk in a couple seconds later and when he smells the food, he turns to see who's in the kitchen and mouths _'thank you'_ to Jace and I. I smile at him and then he heads out to sit next to Izzy.

Just as I finish the sauce, Alec and Magnus come down stairs. "Hey, come and get your food. It's ready," I tell them and get myself a bowl. I look to my right and see Jace do the same thing. I smile at him and he winks. I fill my bowl with pasta and place two meatballs on top of the pasta. I grab the sauce and pour some on my pasta. I see Jace has done the same thing and I laugh to myself. Just as Jace and I head outside on the balcony, Magnus and Alec (who told Izzy and Simon about the food) with Izzy and Simon on their heels pass us and head into the kitchen. I sit at the white marble round-table so I'm facing the sunset. Jace sits to my right and looks behind him before whispering in my ear, "What were you laughing about?"

I smile and say, "Our bowls are exactly the same, Jace." He looks from his bowl to mine and laughs. "You were right Fray. They are the same," he whispers in my ear again and we begin eating. Izzy, Simon, Alec, and Magnus all come outside with big bowls of pasta and Izzy sits to my left with Simon next to her. Alec sits on the other side of Jace and Magnus sits next to Alec. _Alec._ "Hey Alec, thanks for dumping the water on Magnus earlier," I laugh, "You really helped me." He smiles sheepishly and looks back down at his food.

"Oh, look at the sunset," I hear Izzy squeal and then I look up. The sky has turned purple because of the clouds that have appeared recently. The sunlight that spans across the sky in between the ocean and the clouds is a gorgeous orangey-pink that's more pink than orange. The ocean has also turned purple with a single streak of pink reflecting from the sky.

We all forget the food on the table and we stand up. Magnus leans on the rails with Alec leaning on him and Izzy does the same as Magnus. Simon wraps his arm around Izzy's waist and leans on the railing. Jace and I part ourselves away from the couples and give them space. I lean on the railing, my body angled towards the beautiful sunset. Jace wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses the side of my head. I smile and lean into him as he squeezes my shoulder. Things are great right now…


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

"Why haven't we told them about us dating yet," Jace asks me as we lay in bed one night. We just finished _'John Wick'_ when he asked that question. We've been here for a week and whenever Izzy, Simon, Alec, or Magnus comes into the room we spring apart. "Are you not happy or something?"

I turn to face him, shocked. "Jace, no…what gave you that idea?"

"I just want to know why we haven't said anything yet." In the dark I can see that Jace looks down briefly and then looks back at me. I sit up and turn on the lights over the bed. I get on my knees and lean over Jace to kiss him. When I pull back, I lay down next to him and he puts an arm around my shoulders. I scoot closer into him and rest my head on his chest. "We haven't said anything because I'm trying to prevent this as long as I can. 'This' being the ship names. "

He laughs, "Ship names? What are we buying a boat and we get to name it?" I laugh with him and when I catch my breath again, I explain. "Relationship names. The shorter way to say two peoples names in a relationship to create a 'super couple' name. Magnus and Izzy come up with them and if you've heard them talking about their plans that night with their boyfriends, then you've definitely heard it."

He shakes his head and I give examples, "You know, like when Magnus says to Izzy, 'Oh, you and Simba are so cute together! I am such a Sizzy shipper,' or when Izzy says to Magnus, 'You and my brother are so great together. I ship Malec so hard!'" Jace laughs once I've finished and says, "I can honestly say that I've never heard that before…wait, so 'Sizzy' is Simon and Izzy and 'Malec' is Magnus and Alec?"

"You got it," I tell him.

"So what would ours be?"

"Oh God, I don't know…maybe 'Jary' or 'Clace.' I will admit that 'Clace' is the better of the two," I laugh.

"Wow…you're right. 'Clace' _is_ the better of the two," Jace says and laughs along with me. After our laughter dies down I snuggle into Jace and feel him pull me into him tighter. I feel myself falling asleep and right before I am fully asleep, I feel Jace kiss my hair. I smile as I fall into the clutches of sleep.

~.o.O.o.~

I wake up to pounding on the door. "Jace, Clary," I hear Izzy shout, "Get your asses out of bed! The guys are making me wait on making breakfast until you wake up!" My eyes fly open and I sit up. I feel an arm around my waist and look down to see Jace. He starts to groan because I moved and I cover my hand over his mouth. Izzy is still pounding on the door and Jace sits up. He starts to throw a pillow at the door but I stop him. I shake my head no and keep my hand over his mouth. He pulls my hand away from his mouth and says, "Clary, what-" I shake my head again and put a finger up to my lips, showing him that he needs to be quiet.

"Jace! Clary! Get up," Izzy shouts from the door again. Jace looks at me curiously and then the pounding on the door stops. "Iz, if you woke them up, I'm pretty sure you did it then. Give it a minute maybe they'll be out. If not, you can knock on their door again," I hear Simon tell her. She groans out "Fine" and then I hear their steps walking away from the door.

"What," Jace starts again before I shake my head again. I get out of bed and head into the bathroom. Jace is still sitting there; staring at me like I'm crazy and I walk back out of the bathroom, grab his hand, and pull him into the bathroom with me. I silently shut the door behind us and turn around, only to be met with Jace's chest. This bathroom is big for one person, but tiny for two. "Jace, we have to be really quiet," I whisper.

"Why?" he crosses his arms over his chest and steps back a bit to give me some space.

"Because Izzy wants to make breakfast," his eyes widen as I say this as quietly as I can, "and the guys are making her wait for us. She can't start cooking until we get out there. I can't save the guys, but I can save us. Get dressed as silently as you can and we'll sneak out. We can have breakfast somewhere else and while we are leaving, I'll text her. I'm not in the mood to eat some of her food. We've avoided it for the past week and I'm planning on making that last as long as possible for us."

Jace nods his head with wide eyes because he's had to experience the toxic poison that is Izzy's cooking. I turn around to open the door as quietly as I can and I walk quickly and quietly into the closet. I grab whatever clothes are in front of me and quietly shut the door. Jace is doing whatever he needs to do in the bathroom to get ready while I change and then we'll switch places. I brush my hair and leave it down because we don't have time to waste. I throw on the clothes and realize that Izzy put this in the closet because I would not normally buy or wear this.

"Clary," I hear Jace whisper outside the door. I'm going to have to go with this…there's no time to change now! "Coming," I say quietly as I open the door. I quickly run into the closet and grab whatever shoes are right in front of me. That's when I glance up at the closet and see that Izzy has definitely been in here. None of my clothes are in the closet! Izzy has replaced all my clothes with some of hers. I shake my head as I exit the closet and steal a glance back at Jace. He is still standing by the bathroom door and is staring at me.

"Jace, you can stare at me later! Come on we don't have that much time," I grab my phone off the counter and since I don't have time to grab a bag, I hold it in between my teeth. I still have my shoes in my hand as I open the casita door. I peek my head out and see that Izzy, Simon, Alec, and Magnus are all on the balcony looking out into the ocean. I nod my head to Jace and walk the two steps to the wooden gate. I open the gate and jump outside. When I look up at Jace, I see that he's shutting the door to the casita and I take my phone out of my mouth momentarily to mouth 'hurry' to him. He nods his head and runs out the gate. I shut it as quietly as I can behind me and then I hear Izzy's heels walking towards us.

We look at each other and then start running while bending down. There's a cement wall in the patio area to block the front of the house from the street. It's not like there's much to block anyway. All that's in front of the house is the neighbors' garage. We duck behind that wall and Jace crouches down next to me. I sit on the ground and take that moment to put on the shoes. Of course the shoes are not only heels…they are open-toed leather knee boots. _I'm going to kill her…she knows I can't walk in heels to save my life._

"Clary, Jace," we hear Izzy shout and Jace couches down lower as we hear Izzy start to pound on the door, "I'm coming in!" The moment we hear her open the door to the casita, we both start running…well, I try running the best I can given the shoes I'm in. We reach the end of the street and turn left.

"Let's never have to sneak out of the house again," I say to Jace with my hands on my knees, trying to get my breath back.

"Agreed," Jace responds and then he straightens up. I look up at him and see his eyes going over what I'm wearing. "Are you wearing-"

I cut him off, "Yes, Jace. I am wearing a dark green crop top, a black skater skirt, and cut-out knee boots."

"But…the boots are leather, right?" He smirks at me and I stand up.

"Yes, they're leather. They're also Izzy's. She raided the closet and swapped all my clothes with some of her clothes."

Jace wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me into him. "Let's find a place to eat before Izzy comes after us." I nod my head in agreement and we begin walking down the street. I see someone answer their phone ahead of us and immediately remember my phone. "Jace, we have to go back! My phone," he laughs and reaches in his pocket. "My phone," I sigh a breath of relief when he hands it to me. "I better text Iz before she calls me and causes a big scene."

 **New Text Message To: Izzy**

 **Don't wait to make breakfast for us. Jace and I are out. Don't panic and please don't destroy the door trying to wake up two people who aren't even there. See ya later Iz!**

Jace and I continue walking for a while until we reach a restaurant called 'The Orange Inn.' Just as we step inside the small restaurant, my phone buzzes 4 times.

 **New Text Message From: Izzy**

 **Aww! I wish you told me earlier! Oh well, more for the guys!**

 **New Text Message From: Alec**

 **Thanks…now we have to eat Izzy's food!**

 **New Text Message From: Magnus**

 **Biscuit…I would have really appreciated it if you told me you were going to bail earlier. I would have gone with you…**

 **New Text Message From: Simon**

 **Oh, God…her food is already burnt and she hasn't even turned on the stove. Thanks for leaving us to fend for ourselves. We're all going to be sick when you get here!**

~.o.O.o.~

Sure enough, when Jace and I got back at the house Alec was on the couch with a fever, Simon was in the bathroom throwing up, Magnus was looking _very_ pale, and Izzy was…totally fine. If anything, she was actually enjoying playing nurse. "Hey, guys…I don't think they can go to the beach today. They all just got sick for some reason," Izzy tells us as she makes soup for Magnus. Magnus takes one look at the soup and then jump up and runs upstairs. I'm pretty sure that Magnus just ran upstairs to throw up because he was covering his mouth with his hand.

"You know what Iz," I begin, "I think you should say and take care of them. I mean, the illness just came on so suddenly and Jace and I were gone. Jace and I are going to go to the beach to avoid getting sick." Izzy looks thoughtful for a moment and then Alec jumps up and runs downstairs, covering his mouth with his hand. She runs after Alec shouting, "Good idea! Better get out now!"

I smirk at Jace and he wraps an arm around my waist as we head for the casita. "Time for the beach," Jace leans down and whispers in my ear. I shiver and he pulls me closer to him.

~.o.O.o.~

"What do you want to do?" I ask Jace.

"I heard there were dome tide pools over there," Jace says and points to the other side of the beach. I nod my head and we set off. "So," Jace starts, "Do you think that it was Izzy's food that made them sick?"

"Of course! She's a horrible cook!" I laugh and just as Jace open his mouth I hear another voice behind us. "Hey, Clary!" Sebastian…

"Hey Sebastian," I say slowly and as we turn around, out of the corner if my eye I see Jace tense up beside me. Sebastian waves and heads towards us. "How are you?" he asks when he reaches us. I see Jace clench his fist and I reach down to hold his hand. He relaxes a little bit but he's still tense.

"Really good. You remember Jace don't you?"I see his eyes harden when he glances at Jace.

The two boys glare at each other for s couple of seconds before Sebastian responds, "Yeah, Jace is your best friend."

I hear some undertones when he says 'best friend' but I decide to ignore it. "Well, Jace isn't my best friend anymore…he's my boyfriend."

Sebastian's eyes dart over to mine as he grits out the words, "Boyfriend?"

Jace smirks and wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me into him as he says, "Yep, I'm her boyfriend." Sebastian glares at Jace and then looks at me.

"Well then, I'll leave you two be," he leans down and kisses me on the cheek. He then back away and looks at Jace. Unspoken words passing in between them. Jace tightens his grip on me and then I feel his grip loosen as he starts to head after Sebastian. I grab his hand and pull him back to me…well, I try to but instead I end up running in front of him and I place my hands on his chest trying to keep him from going after Sebastian. That is _not_ working and I am being pushed along as he walks. I know he's not stopping soon and I get a brilliant idea. I move out of his way long enough to get into position.

I run in front of him, giving the impression that I'm going to let him go. I turn around and when he is right in front of me I pull his face down to mine and kiss him. Eventually, I fell him start to kiss me back as his rage starts to lessen and when I pull away, I whisper to him, "Better?"

"Better," he replies and I feel his hands grab my hips and pull me back to him. I reach up and wrap my hands around his neck to pull his lips back to mine.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I am so sorry for being gone for so long…I was with my grandparents in Colorado...in the middle of nowhere! With no cell service! I'll try to get out as many chapters as I can in the next few days to make up for it. Also, I apologize for this chapter being so short. I promise I will make it up with the next chapter… ;)**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

"Happy Fourth of July," I hear Jace shout behind me. Before I can turn around I am picked up and thrown into the ocean. I jump out of the water, soaking wet, only to have a wave knock me down. "Jace," I shout at him. I turn to glare at him and see that he's laughing _really_ hard at me. I shake my head at him and see that it's getting late. We've been out at the beach all day. Simon, Alec, and Magnus had all recovered from Izzy cooking a week ago, but Izzy has been moping ever since then. They kinda told her that it was her cooking, so…yeah.

The sky is a beautiful orange from the sunset and the waves are getting bigger, so I turn and head up the beach towards the stairs. "Clary, wait," I hear behind me. I stop and turn around to face him.

"Are you really that upset about me throwing you in the water?" He looks at me curiously. I shake my head and smile at him as I say, "No, I'm not mad. It's just getting late and Izzy told me earlier that she wanted me in her room."

~.o.O.o.~

"Hey, Clary," Izzy says deviously, "remember that revenge I was going to get on you a while ago?" My eyes widen in realization. I try to run out of her room, but she wraps a belt around my wrist, pulling me back to her. I swear that girl would be amazing with a real whip. "No, Izzy! Please! You got all the sand out of your hair…it's not like it took 5 weeks to get it all out," I try pleading with her.

She shakes her head and sits me down on her bed. I groan in frustration and she shushes me. Pretty soon my hair is in perfect beach waves and I have been forced into cut out blue jeans, a white ruffle crop top, black cut out heels, and plum lipstick. I'm going to kill her.

While I sit there and take in what I'm wearing, I see Izzy starting to get ready herself. She throws on a red dress and some black booties. "What are you doing Iz," I ask her.

"Simon is taking me to a movie," she says and then marches out the door, leaving me in the damned outfit on her bed. I hear the front door shut and then my phone rings.

"Hello," I ask.

"If you even think about talking off that outfit, I will find out," Izzy says and then she hangs up. _Great…now I'm stuck in this for a while._ I head outside the room, only to be met with Jace. "Well, aren't you all dressed up," he smirks. I roll my eyes and move past him and into the kitchen. I look behind me, only to see Jace's eyes on me. "This was Izzy's revenge. I was about to get out of it after she left with Simon for her date, but she called me and said that I'm not allowed to take it off," I explain.

Jace opens his mouth to reply, but is cut off by Magnus talking as he comes down the stairs. "Biscuit, Alec and I are going out to dinner. Will you be okay with your beau while we're gone?" I nod my head and blush. I remember the day that they found out. Iz and Mags weren't that happy with me for keeping it from them but they did accept it…only after Simon freaked out.

 **Flashback:**

 _Jace and I are kissing on the lounge chair on the balcony. I was trying to draw the view from the balcony to Catalina Island when Jace came out. My sketchbook has been discarded on the rest of the lounge chair behind me while Jace and I kiss. I hear a squeak followed by breaking glass behind us and Jace and I break apart. I turn around to look at her and see that her eyes are wide. "Iz are you okay," I hear Magnus say as he rushes over to Izzy while Alec and Simon attempt to clean up the broken ceramic bowl and what I'm guessing is soup._

 _Izzy is still staring at us in shock and Magnus looks towards us to see what Izzy was so shocked about. Magnus' eyes widen considerably as he takes in how close me and Jace are sitting and how swollen my lips are. I bite my lip and look down at the floor. Jace wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me closer to him. Izzy and Magnus come out of their stupor long enough to walk onto the balcony and pull out two chairs in front of Jace and I. "How long has this been happening?" Izzy asks in a scary calm voice._

 _"Um…3-ish weeks," I say quietly. Jace grips me harder and I hear Magnus and Izzy inhale sharply. Izzy has the crazy look in her eyes and just as she opens her mouth to scream at us, Magnus whispers something in her ear. I hear Izzy mumble something quickly to Magnus and he nods his head. Jace and I are staring at them as they have a quiet conversation. Magnus glances at me and then grabs Izzy's hand and pulls her into the corner of the balcony. They whisper furiously to each other and I see Izzy glance at me. "Why would she keep this a secret," I hear Izzy whisper-shout as her gaze goes back to Magnus._

 _I don't hear Magnus' reply. All I know is that Izzy isn't happy with it because she crosses her arms and glares at Magnus. "I am her girl best friend! How come she didn't tell me!?" Izzy is not happy…at all. Magnus is actually more accepting about this than I thought he would be…and more reasonable too._

 _I hear Magnus mumble something like, "Maybe she was waiting for the right time." Izzy huffs and rolls her eyes. "For_ _three_ _weeks!? Come on! Mags, we've been shipping Clace forever!" I heard that one loud and clear. Apparently Jace did too because when we turned our heads to look at each other, we both had the same horrified expression. "You know that we are horrible at keeping things secret, Iz. Maybe she didn't want to make it public yet? Or maybe Jace didn't want to," Magnus tries to appease her._

 _"Mags…this is_ _CLACE_ _we're talking about. They have no excuse! We have been shipping them for so long and they didn't tell us," her voice drops and I don't hear the rest of the conversation. I whisper to Jace, "Can you hear what they're saying?"_

 _"No," he replies and then stands up quietly. He nods his head in the direction of the house and I quietly stand up. Alec and Simon are leaning on the kitchen island watching everything unfold before them. "What did you two do?" Simon says, smug. Alec looks like he wants out of it and attempts to shut Simon up by walking to the fridge and coming back with two water bottles. He tosses one to Simon and Simon fumbles with it a little before looking around Jace and me at Izzy, who is still arguing with Magnus about what to do. Simon still looks smug as he adds in a jokingly tone, "Are you two dating or something and Izzy just found out?" He snorts to himself and brings the water bottle to his lips. I smile to myself because I know what's going to happen next: Jace is going to tell Simon that we actually are dating and Simon is going to spit water everywhere._

 _I was right._

 _Jace smirks and says, "Actually you were right." Simon stops drinking water but still has the bottle to his lips. "We_ _are_ _dating," Jace says and swoops in to kiss me. The moment I feel Jace's lips touch mine, not only do I hear Simon spit out water and start coughing, I feel sparks ignite in me. Kissing him has got to be the best thing ever. Simon is still in his coughing fit when Jace and I break apart. Sometime during our kiss we shifted so I am no longer standing next to Jace. I am now standing in his arms with his arms wrapped around my waist and my hands (I'm 1 foot smaller than Jace so I really can't loop my arms around his neck unless I sit on a counter top) are resting on his neck, messing with the little curls around the nape of his neck._

 _I am still in his arms, looking up at him when, in my peripheral vision, Izzy and Magnus come into the kitchen to see what's wrong with Simon. "Simon! Are you okay?" Izzy rushes over to Simon and starts patting his back. "Is something wrong Silvia?" Magnus asks and Simon glares at him when he stops coughing._

 _"First of all it's Simon. I'm a boy. And second of all," he paused and points to me and Jace, "They're DATING!"_

 _Izzy nods her head and turns to look at me and Jace. I hear her gasp and finally turn to look at her. Jace does too and we see that Magnus, Izzy, Alec, and Simon are all staring at us with amazement, wonder, and shock. Simon looks flustered and starts babbling as Izzy grabs his arm and pulls him downstairs. Magnus does the same to Alec, only he takes him upstairs and Alec doesn't look nearly as flustered as Simon did._

 _When we're alone in the kitchen, I ask Jace, "You told Alec didn't you?" He looks down and nods as he grins sheepishly. I roll my eyes and scoff as I reach up to pull his lips down to mine._

 **Present day:**

Magnus and Alec left about half an hour ago and Jace and I are sitting curled up in one of the blue felt recliners watching a random movie. "Should we get food for tonight or should we make something?" I hear Jace ask and I look up at him.

"I'm going to be honest with you. I'm too lazy to try to make dinner tonight," I respond.

Jace looks thoughtful for a moment before he asks, "How about Gina's Pizza?" I nod my head and get off Jace's lap so he can grab the phone while I grab the menu out of the office. I quickly scan through the menu and as I get to Jace, I tell him what I'd like. "I'm going to have some Alfredo. What about you?"

"I think I'll have that too," he says as he places the phone next to his ear so he can order. After he's done, I ask him, "Where should we eat?"

"How about our room? Then if the others come home we won't be interrupted." I nod my head and agree with Jace's statement.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Again! I am so so sorry! Please tell me what I can do to make up my lateness to you! I hope this chapter helps…**

 **Also, I have an Instagram Fan Fiction account, so follow me under " " to get pictures of where the story is taking place.**

 **Disclaimer: All Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story belong to Cassandra Clare.**

With "Gina's Pizza" take out in our hands, we walk back to the beach house when I get a weather alert. "Dear god," Jace says, "will you shut that damn thing up?" I laugh and put my phone closer to his ear.

"Clary," he warns, "If you don't get that annoying ass sound to stop, you're going to get it." The sound stops automatically and I look down to read it just as we turn on our street.

 ** _Thunderstorm Warning: Area will be experiencing heavy showers and fog effective until 2:00 AM tomorrow. Avoid travel._**

I tell Jace what it says and then my phone rings just as Jace's does too. "Hello," I answer.

"Clary! I'm so sorry; Simon and I have to stay at a hotel until the storm passes. Will you be okay at the house?" Izzy shouts and I have to pull the phone away from my ear so I don't lose and eardrum.

"Yeah its fine," I tell her, "Is there anything I need to do to the house?"

"Make sure all windows and doors are locked," she states, "I gotta go. See you tomorrow." And with that she's gone. I put my phone back in my bag and glance up at the quickly darkening sky. "We better hurry," I hear Jace say and we start fast walking to get home before the storm comes.

Just as we get on the patio and narrowly dodge Jace's car, I feel raindrops starting to fall. Jace hold the gate open for me and the moment I get inside it starts pouring outside. "Home in the nick of time, eh?" Jace says. I laugh and walk into the kitchen to put the food down. "Who was it that you were talking to earlier when we were on the phone?" I ask Jace as I grab paper plates from the drawer.

"Alec. Him and Magnus can't make it back here tonight because of the storm," he says and sits down on the first islands' barstool. I continue moving around the kitchen and turn around to see Jace watching my every movement. "Can I help you?" I direct the question at Jace and his eyes dart up to mine before he smirks and lets his eyes wander my body again as he says, "Just enjoying the view."

I feel my face heating up and I look down as I make my way over to where Jace is. I sit down quietly next to him and keep my face down. "Clary," he says and I look up at him. He leans forward to catch my lips in a kiss. I lean into him and the moment his lips touch mine, I feel sparks fly throughout my body. He pulls me closer and my hands fly into his hair as his wrap around my waist. If I could kiss him forever without the need of air, I would. I know Jace feels the same because he voiced this opinion to me after we broke apart.

After that, we ate dinner in peace with only a few touches from Jace, but each and every one set my skin on fire. Everything is going great until I feel a gust of wind. I gasp and turn to see water coming in through an open window. "We forgot to shut the windows!" I shout as I jump up and race to close the windows. "Get a towel from downstairs and wipe up all the water from the floor while I run through the house and shut all the windows," I shout again as I finish the windows on the second floor. I race up to the third floor as Jace runs downstairs to get a beach towel to start mopping up the floor. Jace runs up the stairs to the third floor while I run down two flights of stairs to the bottom floor. The second and third floor's windows were easy to close, but the first floor was different.

As I race down the stairs and head into the master bedroom, only to find out that the doors won't shut all the way. "Damn it," I curse under my breath as I decide to just do it. I shut the windows the best I can in the lower part of the house and in the garage…then I go outside. I have to get the windows shut and there's no other way to shut them so I race around the house shutting all the windows getting absolutely soaked. I run around the house to the garage, only to be faced with a problem. It won't shut. I push hard and it finally moves. Sighing I stand up and start to make the long trek back around to the other side of the house. I am thoroughly soaked and as I walk in the pouring rain, I hear my shoes sloshing. A gust of wind chills me as I finally make it to the French door leading out onto the deck that I came out of. I reach for the handle, only to find that when I slammed it, I jolted something so I can't open it.

It's getting darker and colder by the second. My only hope is that Jace will come downstairs soon. I feel myself start to shiver as I rub my hands up and down my arms, trying to gain some warmth. I look over to my right and see that there's an extra towel from the beach the other day. _Thank God!_ I grab the towel that is…wet. This won't help anything. I know the makeup Izzy put on me is no doubt running down my face so I take the sopping wet towel and wipe it all off my face.

I stand in front of the door for another 2 minutes before Jace comes down the stairs and heads into the workout room. I can tell he's been looking for me because he looks kind of worried. He looks around the room before his eyes spot me outside. He drops the towel he's holding in his hands and rushes over to the doors. He tries to open it…but it's locked. When I slammed it in my haste to get outside, I must have shut it so hard that the door locked on itself. _Great, now I'm stuck out here._

The sun has set and it's extremely dark outside. The only light I have is coming from the light shining out the windows in the workout room. Jace is gone, probably to find a key or something, so I decide to try my best to get out of the rain. I step off one of the two decks and sit under the balcony in between the two decks. Being under the balcony doesn't help at all because the wind is blowing the rain right on me. I decide to sit and pull my knees into my chest as I wrap my arms around my knees to try to generate some heat. It's like I took a shower outside, that's how wet I am. I shiver once more before I hear the sound of a door opening to my left. "Clary," I hear Jace shout. I stand up and make my way towards Jace, who has found a way to open the door.

"I'm here," I say as I step in front of the now open door to the workout room. He pulls me inside and immediately I get wrapped up in a towel and Jace pulls me into his arms. I shiver and lean into him more. He gladly pulls me closer and I feel myself getting warmer as Jace pulls me even closer to him.

After I somewhat dry off, which means my skin dries but my clothes and hair are still sopping wet, Jace says, "Let's get you cleaned up." I look up at him from my position in his arms as he unwraps me from the towel. I shiver as the cold air hits my now warm skin and he does what I don't expect. He lifts me in his arms bridal-style and starts to walk towards the stairs. "Um, Jace," I begin, "you're going to get wet and I can walk you know."

"Where's the fun in that? And anyway," he replies as he stops in front of the stairs, "you're soaked and could slip on the stairs. I'm not letting that happen to you. I love you too much for that to happen. You're really light so it's not like I'm going to struggle to get you up the stairs. As for the I'm going to get wet part, I kinda already am. " I roll my eyes and rest my head on his chest as he carries me up the stairs. When we reach the top of the stairs, his words hit me. I gasp and lift my head from his chest to look up at him. "You love me?" I ask him looking back and forth between his eyes to see if there's anything hidden in them. He stops walking with me still in his arms.

His eyes widen as he says, "Did I say that out loud?"

I nod my head and say, "Yes." He closes his eyes and lifts his head to the ceiling.

He sighs and I feel everything inside me clench as I await his next words. "I thought I said that in my head, but apparently I didn't," he opens his eyes and looks directly at me as he says, "Since I already said it, I may as well say it again." It's my turn for my eyes to widen and I stop breathing.

"Clary," he starts, "remember when we were on the plane and our lips were so close to each other?" I nod and he sets me down before continuing, "All I could think in that moment was how beautiful you were. I never thought that before because we were best friends. That's the first time I thought of you as more than a best friend." I exhale shakily and his hand comes up to cup my cheek before continuing. "Then there was the garage. When you fell and I caught you, I was going to say some smartassy remark, but when I saw how close our lips were, all I could think about was kissing you and that's all I wanted to do. But Izzy and Simon having too much fun interrupted us when I was about to kiss you." I let out a shaky laugh and he still continues.

"Then you almost fell on the stairs and I pulled you into my arms to save you from having to go to the hospital. The moment our lips touched I-I- knew there was something about you. You were nothing like other girls. You made me feel something every time I was near you and that's what it took to make me realize it. I knew you were the one after that and when you ran upstairs I knew I had to come after you. And I did. I can tell you right now that I did not regret that kiss for a single minute. I was just worried that you were going to freak out but you surprised me by kissing me back and that was amazing. When the lights came back on we both came out of the trance that we were in and I felt differently about you. When Sebastian came along I knew I couldn't let you go and I had to kiss you again. I knew you'd follow me and when I kissed you again, I knew I had to ask you to be my girlfriend, so I did. Then you said yes to being my girlfriend and I felt like the luckiest guy on earth." I smile and lean into his hands as I place my hands on his arms.

"That date was not one of our finest moments, but we got past that. Long story short, we're here and I realized that the way I feel about you is love. I just didn't know if you felt the same way about me so I waited for a sign. Then this happened and I actually couldn't be happier with how I said it. I love you, Clary. With every piece of me. I love you." I inhale shakily and the look on his face is one of worry. As if I wasn't going to say it back.

"I love you too Jace. With every piece of me," I say and he crashes his lips to mine.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Okay, so there's an issue with the Instagram account name. The Fan Fiction website won't let me post that for some reason so if you're interested in checking out or following the account check my Bio on my home page. Also, I am so sorry that I haven't posted in a while. High school takes a lot out of you!**

 **Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns all Mortal Instruments characters seen in this story.**

This kiss is different from all the other kisses we've had. This one is filled with passion and love. As his lips press against mine, I move my arms to wrap around his neck while his move to wrap around my waist, pulling me closer. There's no space in between us but I still feel too far apart from Jace. The closeness makes me shiver. When we break apart Jace says, "You should get in the shower. You're still soaked."

I look up at him to protest and see the serious look written all over his face. I know not to fight with him when he looks like that. All arguments that I have had with him when we were younger were lost when he wore that face. I turn and head towards the casita to take my shower and when I get to the front door, I open and turn to say one last thing to Jace. I peek my head around the door and see him looking at me. "Oh, and I didn't shiver because I was cold." I shut the door and head into the casita.

~.o.O.o.~

 **The next day**

I'm enjoying my time relaxing at the beach, listening to the ocean when none other than Isabelle Lightwood breaks the quiet atmosphere around me. "CLARY!" I look over at Izzy from my position on the beach and see that she's waving at me from the stairs. I groan as I make my way up to my feet. _I was so relaxed...why did she have to interrupt me?!_ I get to the stairs and she looks at me curiously. "Iz...what was so important that you had to scream at me from the stairs and get not only my attention, but the attention of others on the beach," as I ask her this a random guy cat-calls her to prove my point.

She rolls her eyes and says, "There are only two weeks left of summer vacation and tomorrow there's going to be a party at a house farther down the beach that we are going to, so I thought I'd give you one last day to see Jace before I take you shopping with Magnus tomorrow-"

"Wait," I interrupt her, "why won't I see Jace tomorrow?"

"Oh...you are, but not until around 7 when we leave for the party."

"Seven? At night," I ask her and she nods with an evil smirk on her face. I am about to ask why I won't see him until 7 until I realize who it is that I am being forced to go shopping with...Isabelle 'I must go to every store in the mall' Lightwood, and Magnus 'I will not rest until every store has been graced by my sparkly presence' Bane. I've made the mistake of shopping with them before and let's just say that I didn't get home until 11 o'clock at night...our journey started at 8 in the morning...that's _12 hours_ of shopping!It would have been 14 hours, but I had to remind them to eat.

"No," I simply state.

"Yes," Izzy replies easily with a Cheshire cat grin.

"No, Izzy. I'm not going."

"Yes, Clary, you're going. If you don't go, then I will be forced to tell Jace-"

"Tell him what," I cut her off, "He's been my best friend since…forever. He knows everything."

She smirks and says, "What about that time you slept over at my house because he was on one of his…let's call them 'dates' even though we both know that they weren't even close to dates, and you fell asleep on the couch…" As she pauses, my eyes widen in realization as to what she's referring to. Her smirk gets even bigger as she says, "I was a nice friend and let you sleep through the movie because I knew you were tired after taking that test from hell…but during the movie…I heard something. I paused the movie and looked over at you because I didn't know if it was you or not and…lo and behold, it _was_ you... Now, I couldn't make out what it was that you said because it was only a one-syllable word and you were talking so quietly. So, naturally, I leaned towards you and I still couldn't understand what it was that you said."

I feel my face begin to heat up because I know exactly where she's going with this… "I got up off my chair and knelt down right in front of you on the couch. You were curled up into a little ball with the blanket I gave you almost covering your mouth…when you said that word again, I could barely hear it because it was muffled but, I was able to make out that one word you said… _'Jace'_ was that one word. I was shocked when I heard that and punched you in the arm to wake you up and when you woke up I jumped on you with questions. 'Why were you dreaming about Jace?' 'What was your dream of him about?'…you get the gist. Well, all you responded was, 'Yes, I was dreaming about Jace but, that's because I miss him. Even though I saw him earlier today, I feel as though we're drifting apart.'"

I swallowed hard and feel that my face is on fire as she continues, "But that smooth little lie didn't last forever…you and I both know what it was that you were dreaming about. I don't think you told him that now, did you?" She's got me…I have no excuse for that so I just stand there waiting for her to say something else. "No…you didn't tell him. It'd be a shame if he _did_ find out…don't you think?"

My eyes dart up to hers in shock. _"You wouldn't,"_ I say quietly.

"Oh, I think we both know that I would," she tells me in a mockingly innocent tone with a look that says _'try me'_ on her face.

"You're evil," I glare at her.

She smiles and replies, "I know…I have been told that by Alec on many occasions."

 _If looks could kill…._

~.o.O.o.~

I have showered and thought of 20 different ways to get out of shopping tomorrow, but I know that's not going to happen. No excuse works around Izzy and Magnus when their shopping…I know this for a fact…I've tried. I walk into the entry hall and slow my walk to the kitchen as I see Jace sitting at the island bar looking at something on his phone with an expression of…well, panic, worry, and concern. I've never seen him look like this before and I can feel how tense he is even though I am a good distance away from him. He is so concentrated on what's on his phone that he doesn't notice me until I gently walk over to him and place my hands on his tense shoulders as I quietly say, "Jace? What's wrong?"

He looks up at me from over his shoulder and says, "What? Oh, nothing is wrong, I'm just thinking." As he says this, I see him wipe all emotion from his face that could give away his worry about something. I move so I'm on the other side of the island and look into his eyes, only to see walls behind them. I know that he doesn't want to talk about…whatever it was, so I just stay silent, looking at him. After a few seconds, he averts his eyes from mine and I somehow manage to keep a gasp inside. I'm pretty sure that my face looks as hurt as I feel. He has never done this before…not after our first kiss, not before we kissed and our relationship was identified as 'Best Friends'…not ever… _Something is really_ _really_ _wrong…_

I somehow manage to reign in my shock long enough to move my feet away from the island where I was just standing and walk over to the fridge. I glance at the clock on the microwave below me and see that it's 12:30. I tug on the door to the fridge until it opens and then reach a shaky hand up to get some leftovers from last night. I shut the door and walked over to the cabinet to get two bowls for the yellow rice and chicken we had last night. I put the food in both bowls and then walk over to the microwave and lean down to gently place them in there. I feel like I'm watching myself do all of this from outside my body…still shocked from the way Jace looked away from me.

The microwave beeping at me shakes me out of whatever daydream I have fallen into. I take the bowls out of the microwave and walk over to where Jace is and place a bowl in front of him. "Clary," I hear distantly, "Clary," I hear again, this time closer and fingers snap in front of my face. I look up, shocked at Jace. "Is this for me," he gently asks as if he was afraid to speak. I nod my head mutely and he quietly responds, "Thanks."

I walk around the island and sit one seat away from Jace. We eat in awkward silence until Jace's phone beeps, signaling a text. He pick up his phone and lets out a satisfied, "ha." I keep my head down, still looking at my now empty bowl when Jace says, "Guess what?"

"What," I reply, feeling the awkward atmosphere slowly dissipate.

"Since it's our senior year and I told Coach that I'd be playing hockey again next year on the last day of our junior year, he already held tryouts early this year and apparently, I'm on the team even though I didn't participate in tryouts," he stands as he says this and leans against the white marble countertop.

"How do you know that you're on the team," I ask knowing that the atmosphere has turned into a comfortable one…but you can still feel the sparks in the air.

"Well," he drags out and as he smirks I know that my Jace has returned, "Coach asked the guys to vote for the captain and said to keep in mind that I'll be on the team but I couldn't make it to tryouts, so…you are looking at the new captain of the Varsity Hockey team."

I gasp and squeal as I launch myself out of my seat and hug Jace. He laughs and wraps his arms around me, returning the hug. "I can't believe it! This is so awesome! Now you're going to have a new nickname if you tell me what your number is," I am smiling as wide as possible but it fades a little bit when I see Jace's face. His face looks serious and I loosen my hold and step out of his embrace. "What's wrong," I tentatively ask, hoping to not have a repeat of whatever happened earlier.

"Nothing, I just…I'm trying to see if I remember what I told Coach I wanted my number to be this year…" He puts his hand on his chin in thought and looks down as he says, "You know…I think it was 17."

His eyes look at mine as I ask, "17," and then he smiles as I gasp and delight washes over my face. _17…the day I agreed to be his girlfriend._ I launch myself at Jace again and he laughs again and says, "How does it feel to be the girlfriend of the captain of the hockey team?" Our football team isn't the best but our hockey team has won the title of State Champion every year and for the past 3 years, we have won the National Champion title. The guys on the football team aren't even that good looking, but the hockey team…fans self dramatically because of Jace. Ever since he joined the team with his good looks (I can't deny that he isn't gorgeous) the rest of the team actually tries too.

He leans down and captures my lips in a quick, sweet one second kiss and then I am lifted onto the countertop. "Amazing, but shouldn't I be asking you how it feels to be captain, Captain?" He laughs and says, "Captain? Hmm, I'm not sure about that…got any others?" I rest my arms around his shoulders and he places his hands on the countertop near my hips. I scrunch up my face and look to my left in concentration and Jace kisses the tip of my nose. I look back up at him and say, "How about 'Seventeen'? Nobody but us will know why you chose the number '17' so it sounds like I'm calling you that because it's your number."

"'Seventeen'…yeah I like that," he says and then pulls me into a kiss that matches the one from last night, if not more passionate.

When we pull away for air, we close our eyes as he rests his forehead against mine and we are both trying to catch our breath. I catch just enough breath to say, "Damn Seventeen." I open my eyes at the same time Jace does and from what I can see, his golden eyes turn a shade darker. He pulls away a couple of inches and nods his head vigorously before saying, "Oh yeah, I like-no _love-_ 'Seventeen.'"

Next thing I know, his lips are on mine again, pressing hard as my hands tangle their way into his hair while his grip my waist. _Damn…he sure can kiss._


	13. Chapter 13

Biscuit," Jace and I are still standing in the kitchen kissing when we hear Magnus call from upstairs. We break apart, but not without an incomprehensible grumble from Jace, as Magnus comes down the stairs. "Yes, Mags?"

He turns his head towards us and smirks as he says, "I'm sorry to have ruined your...fun, but I just wanted to tell you that we'll be leaving for the mall at 8 AM tomorrow." With that, he turns and heads back up the stairs. Jace and I look at each other for a couple seconds before we dismiss Magnus' visit and lean in to kiss again...when Jace's phone decides to ring. He groans as he pulls away and answers his phone. I lean on the island and see his face contort into worry and concern. He looks up at me and then turns around and walks out to the balcony. Fear grips my heart as he does this. I sit down on the bar stool and watch him through the window. He is pacing back and forth with an expression of what can only be described as grim displeasure.

Ten minutes later, he comes back inside with his hand gripping his phone so hard that his knuckles are white. "Jace," I ask quietly and I place my hand on his shoulder as he sits on the bar stool next to me, "What's wrong?"

"What," he seems shocked that I was in the room, "Oh...yeah it's nothing." He shifts his shoulder so my hand drops to my side. I feel as though an icy hand has gripped my heart at his action. I know that this has to be connected to what happened earlier when he was on his phone. Twice in one day can't be good.

I let it slide this time, but that doesn't stop my brain from working. _Was it something that I did? Is something wrong with Celine? Is something wrong with my mom and he doesn't know how to tell me? Is there something wrong that he can't tell me? Is he keeping a secret from me? If it's a secret, then why is he keeping it from me? Is this a matter of life or death? Love or broken hearts? Whatever it is, I hope he tells me soon. Something is wrong...really, really wrong._

"Clary," Jace starts when his phone rings again. He glances down at it and then looks up at me. "I have to take this, but we can go watch a movie in our room," he looks at me with a hopeful expression. I nod my head and he stands up, kisses the top of my head, and heads outside on the balcony to answer his phone again.

I turn around with a sigh and head into the casita to put the movie on. I already know what movie it's going to be... _John Wick_ of course. I plop down onto the bed and sit there, waiting for Jace to come in the room. I have been sitting in here for at least 10 minutes. _Might as well make some popcorn._ I pull myself off the bed and when I walk into the foyer, I can see that Jace is still on his phone on the balcony. He looks like he's in the middle of a heated debate with whoever is on the other line and I try to ignore it as I reach the pantry and grab the popcorn. As I place it in the microwave, I realize that the window that opens onto the balcony is open.

Out of all the windows in this house, 95% are open at all times to let the sea breeze come through the house to save on air conditioning. I let my curiosity get the better of me and I try to listen in on his conversation through the partially opened window. I have extremely good hearing because when we were younger, Jace would try to scare me when I would walk down the halls-whether it was at my house or his-and I would have to listen very carefully for any movement.

I can't hear his conversation very well because he's pacing. When he stops pacing to get his point across to the person on the other line, he stops right in front of the window. "No, they're not doing enough," he spits out, "This could have been prevented if they paid attention! They are _paid_ to do their job and if this _little mistake_ turns out to be something that could affect everyone, then I'm doing it myself!" I can hear what he's saying very clearly until he drops his voice saying, "This isn't just affecting us...this is going to affect _her_ too."

~.o.O.o.~

"Hey, Clary. Ready for the movie," Jace asks as he walks into the casita. He shuts the door behind him and grins sheepishly at me. "Sorry that took so long…do I smell popcorn? Oh I love you!" He jumps on the bed and immediately starts to eat the popcorn. I roll my eyes and when he gets into a comfortable his arm wraps around my shoulder to pull me closer. _I assume that it was me he was talking about when he said 'her,' but what could he mean?_

~.o.O.o.~

By the end of the movie I am sitting on Jace's lap with his arms wrapped around me. It's not that I got scared because of all the blood or anything; it's just that Jace's phone rang 5 times during the movie and he had to answer them. After he answered his phone for the fifth time, he sat down on the bed and pulled me into his lap. The movie must have ended 30 or so minutes ago, but he was so tense when he came in after that last phone call that I made no move to get up. When I was pulled into his lap, I heard a sigh of relief the moment his arms wrapped around me. The silence is good for the both of us. I can think about what it is that is making Jace like this while he thinks about whatever the phone calls are about.

"Want to go get some dinner," Jace asks. I pull my head off of his chest and look up into his tawny eyes. Just as I open my mouth to reply, his phone rings _again._ He sighs and looks down at his phone. He looks up at me and I nod saying, "I'll be ready in 10 minutes," as I get off of him and walk into the closet. I take off my camisole and sleep shorts and pull on a pair of jeans and a purple t-shirt. I sit on the floor and lace up my combat boots before I walk out into the room. I see Jace on our private balcony looking angry at whoever he I son the phone to.

I sigh as I walk into the bathroom and just decide to leave my hair down. As I walk out of the bathroom and put my phone in my back pocket Jace comes in. "What was that about?"

He looks up at me and shakes his head as he says, "It's nothing to worry you about."

I nod my head and look down at the floor. Jace walks around the bed and stands in front of me. I can practically _hear_ the battle he's having with himself, but instead of telling me anything, he just says, "Where do you want to eat?"

I let out a sad sigh and say, "You pick."

"Clary…"

"Yeah," I lift my head to look up at him and I can see how torn he is about telling me about whatever this is.

"Are you okay?"

 _No. I'm not 'okay.' My boyfriend is keeping something from me!_ "Yeah, I'm fine. Just hungry," that was a blatant lie and Jace knows it…nut he doesn't call me out on it or address it like he usually would.

"Alright then. Let's go to that new Italian place on the Coast Highway and Forest."

"Let's go."

~.o.O.o.~

On our walk to the Italian restaurant, Jace and I seemed to have forgotten our…well, what happened in the room. We were laughing and making jokes. Now we're sitting in the restaurant waiting for the check to come, still laughing about mundane things. "I can't believe I missed that," Jace says while laughing.

"You're lucky you missed that," I laugh as I tell him, "Izzy was so out of it that she didn't know she was kissing a statue! Let's just say that she was really happy that I was there the next day to hold her hair back!"

Jace and I laugh about Izzy's ability to hold her alcohol (she's not a lightweight by any means, she just had _a lot_ to drink that night) when Jace's phone rings. He sighs and grabs his phone as he gets up. He answers and says, "Give me a minute," the he covers the speaker with his hand to tell me, "I'll be right back, I'm so sorry."

He walks out the door and I'm left sitting at the table for 20 minutes before he returns. "Sorry about that, Clary," he says.

"Jace…" I trail off.

"It's nothing Clary. Don't worry about it," I see him tense as he says this.

"Jace, you and I both know that it's not ' _nothing.'"_ He looks up at me and I see him pleading me in his eyes.

"Just-just don't worry about it Clary," he looks down at his phone on the table.

"Jace…I'm going to worry about this because it's stressing you out…I know there's something you're not telling me," I reach across the table to grab his hand. The moment our hands touch he pulls back and puts his hands under the table. I feel that icy hand grip my heart again and then Jace says the words that break something in me.

"You wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand? You're not telling me anything," my voice rises as I say the last sentence.

Jace's hands cover his face and he groans in exasperation. "Clary, it doesn't concern you," he says as he removes his hands from his face and looks at me with the serious look, but I don't let that phase me.

"Bullshit," I spit out and Jace looks shocked because I don't curse that often. "That is absolute bullshit. That is such a _lie_ , I can't even-"

Jace leans over the table and whisper-shouts, "How do you know that's a lie?! Have I ever lied before?!"

I whisper-shout right back at him. "You just lied right now! And I know it's a lie because-" I cut off when the waitress comes and hands Jace the check, which he places his card on and the moment she leaves I continue, "I heard you on the phone."

Jace pales as he says, "What?"

"I heard you before we started the movie. You know how I had that popcorn in the room? Well, where do you think I got it from? A magical unicorn's ass? No, I made it in the kitchen. You stopped pacing right in front of the window and I _heard_ you say that 'this is going to affect _her_ too.' I can only assume that I'm the 'her' in question. Right?"

He looks down when I finish and that only confirms my suspicions. "I can't _believe_ that you just lied to me," I spit as I slide out of the booth and head out the door just as the waitress comes back to give Jace his card. I make it to Legion Street before Jace catches up to me. "Clary!" I spin around and look at him, only 5 feet away from me.

"Are you going to tell me what this is about now? Huh," I immediately ask before he can say anything else. His silence is my answer again. "That's what I thought," I say as I begin to turn around. His hands grab my shoulders and spin me to face him again. I put my hands on his chest and push as hard as I can while yelling at him, "Get _off_ of me!"

"Clary, will you listen to me?!" The onlookers in Laguna must be loving this little spectacle.

"Not unless you tell me the truth! Not unless you tell me what this is about because I know this concerns me too!"

"I can't!"

"Why not?! Give me one good reason why you can't tell me," I shout back. For the third time tonight, I am greeted with silence. "Don't talk to me unless you can give me a good reason for keeping whatever secret you are keeping. And it better be a damn good excuse or the _truth_."


	14. Chapter 14

I don't waste any time getting back to the beach house. I left Jace standing at the corner of Legion Street and the Coast Highway. The moment I get to the house, I head straight to the casita and get into my pajamas, thinking about our fight. I had every right to do that…he's _never_ kept secrets from me before. Maybe I overreacted a little bit…he has to have reasons for keeping this from me.

I definitely overreacted…but I am just so _pissed_ that he is keeping something from me! No, I was wrong. He has every right to keep things from me if he wants to…but he's never kept anything from me before. I was always the one he would tell his secrets to…when Celine put him on house arrest he _always_ told me why. We never had any secrets…

My train of thoughts gets broken off by hearing the door open and close quietly. I look up from where I'm standing by the bed and see Jace standing there. He looks at me cautiously like I was a wild animal that could charge at any time. We are motionless for the longest time, staring at each other, waiting for the other to speak first. "Jace-," I start before I am cut off.

"Clary, I am so sorry. I shouldn't-," it's my turn to cut him off as I walk over to him, reach up, and pull his lips down to mine. His lips are tensed against mine until I press harder against him and he immediately loosens up. His arms wrap around my waist as he pulls me closer to him. We break apart only when we desperately need air. Even then, we don't part very far as his head rests on mine. "Jace, _I_ am so sorry," he opens his mouth to cut me off again but I don't let him.

"Let me finish. I need to respect your boundaries. I overreacted and I am so sorry for doing that. It's just that we have never kept secrets from each other before and when you did I got scared. I thought you were going to say that it was a bad idea for us to try to date because I wasn't doing anything. I love you so much and I don't want to let you go. Please don't tell me that you're sorry for keeping a secret from me because I need to be the one apologizing."

He steps away from me as his phone buzzes again. _Ah, he put it on mute._ He looks down at his phone as he digs it out of his pocket. A scowl grows on his face before he declines the call and looks back at me. "Clary, I'm sorry for not telling you what all the phone calls are about, but I promise I will tell you what they're about after this whole thing is over. I love you too."

I smile up at him and he grins back in return. His phone rings again and he looks up at me apologetically. I nod my head and when he walks out the balcony door I get into the bed and I immediately fall into a light sleep. Before I totally drift off I feel Jace slide into bed and wrap his arms around me. "I promise I'll tell you when this is all over. I love you," are the last words I hear before I fall into the arms of sleep.

 **The next morning**

"Clary! Wakey, wakey! We have a lovely day of shopping ahead of us," Izzy shouts from outside the door and I cuddle into the warmth next to me just wanting to fall back asleep. "CLARY! Don't make me go in there!" I groan and roll over so I can face the warmth. I realize that the warmth I'm feeling is Jace's chest and he groans when Izzy starts pounding on the door. "I've been shouting at you for the past 15 minutes! GET UP!"

"Go away," Jace shouts in response to Izzy and pulls me closer into his chest. I smile as I feel Jace put his chin on top of my head and try to nuzzle deeper into him.

"Go away? Did he just tell me to _go away_?! That's it! I'm coming in whether you're dressed or not asshole," I hear her shout at Jace and I feel him shift so he can sit up. I roll onto my back and look at Jace glaring at the door. The doorknob starts to turn and Jace grabs a pillow from behind him and launches it at the door as it opens. Izzy's reflexes are quick, but not quick enough to dodge a pillow to the head by Jace.

She squeals and is glaring at Jace from her place outside the door. Jace stands up and walks around the bed and over to the door. She opens her mouth to say something to Jace and he shuts the door on her. He locks the door in every way possible and Izzy gets out of the shock she's in because nobody has ever done that to her, and starts shouting and pounding on the door.

Jace turns around and looks at the clock on my nightstand. He scoffs, "Tell me why your friend tried to wake us up at 6?"

"She's crazy," is my response and he walks over to the bed from the door and flops down on top of me. "Can I help you?"

He smiles, "Yes, actually. You can."

"Oh? And what is it that you'd like me to help you with?"

He leans down and kisses me gently on the lips. I smile against his lips and he pulls away to give me the smile he reserves for me. The 'you're my whole world' smile that lights up my day.

"I love you," I say.

His grin gets even wider as he says, "I love you too."

He rolls off of me and snakes back under the covers. We both roll onto our sides to face each other and Jace's hands find mine. He lifts one of our entwined hands to his mouth and kisses the back of my hand gently. "Are we okay," he asks, nervousness lacing his sleepy voice.

I smile gently as I reply, "Yeah. We're fine."

He smiles and kisses the tip of my nose.

 **Twelve hours later**

After Izzy and Magnus effectively dragged me out of the bed, leaving a scowling Jace after them, they allowed me to get dressed into what I wanted (jeans and a plain t-shirt) before dragging me off to the mall. It was noon…we've been here for eight hours and we have been in 19 of the 20 'fashionable' stores as Iz and Mags have deemed them which means extremely expensive with clothes that are way too bright, short, and glittery for me…that doesn't mean that they won't try to force me into them though.

"Clary, you have to try this on," Izzy tells me as she shoves what looks like a tight long sleeved black shirt at me.

"What is it?"

"It's a dress Clary," she says and my eyes widen.

"No," I tell her sternly as I shove it back in her hands, "Not happening, Iz."

"Come on, please?" She tries to puppy dog eyes me and fails.

"No, Iz. That's not happening. If you think I'm trying that on you need to be checked into a mental institute."

"Fine, but you will try on anything Magnus and I tell you to in the last store." I nod my head quickly so I can get out of there! She smirks and heads to the checkout where Magnus is already adding another bag to his total; making 15 bags of clothes, pants, and other accessories. I see Izzy lean over and whisper something in Magnus' ear before he nods his head and makes his way over to me, smirking.

"Come on, Biscuit. We'll meet Izzy at the last store," he says and then escorts me to the next store. The last store is only ten steps away from me when my phone starts ringing. I stop walking to pull it out of my pocket and I see that it's Jace. "I'll meet you inside Magnus. It's Jace," I tell him.

He stops walking just as he's about to get into the store and says, "Oooh, Clary's getting dirty."

"Magnus," I scold him before stepping off to the side and answering my phone.

"Jace?"

"Clary, I am so sorry but I have to go," he says in a rushed tone.

"What?" _He just called me, how does he need to go?_

"Clary, I have to go back home."

"WHAT?! Jace, no you can't-"

"I have to, Clary."

I start towards the exit of the mall as quickly as I can so I can get back to the beach house to talk to Jace. "Jace, where are you right now?" I hear a door close and then he says, "I just passed Legion Street-"

I hang up as I get outside, knowing that I have a little time to get back to the beach house. I get a taxi the moment I step out the door and tell him the address of Izzy's beach house. We start moving and I sit there in the back seat with my head in my hands. Pretty soon, I feel the car stop and look up to see that we are on the Coast Highway, on the last hill before the beach house…it's a dead stop. No cars are moving and I know we won't be moving anytime soon. I groan and pull a 20 out of my pocket and throw it at the driver before I jump out of the car and start sprinting.

I run down the street and almost get hit by a car twice before I burst through the front door and into the casita. Jace looks up at me in shock. "Did you run here?"

"No, I took a taxi until there was too much traffic to move and then I ran the rest of the way," I answer while trying to pull precious air into my lungs. Once I catch my breath, I see that Jace has all of his suitcases packed. "Why do you have to leave," I question and see him hesitate. Then I hear footsteps running towards the casita and turn to see Simon in the doorway.

"Are you okay? I heard a bunch of running and-" he trails of when he sees the look on my face. He slowly backs out of the room and shuts the door behind him as he leaves. I lock the door and turn back to Jace. He slowly stands and starts to move around the room to get his bags.

"Clary, I have to go. I'll miss my flight."

I inhale sharply and the room starts spinning. I make my way over to the bed and sit, feeling my world come crashing down around me. Something in me knows that this isn't going to end well…I just hope that I'm wrong. "You- you're actually leaving," I look up at the golden eyes staring down at me and feel myself start to breathe faster.

"Clary, I told you. I need to go," he starts towards the door and when his hand grasps the knob I stop him.

"Jace…please tell me this isn't because of the phone calls."

His hand drops the doorknob and he turns to look at me. I stand up and look him in the eyes, waiting for his response. "Clary…" he says slowly and I know it's because of the calls. He starts to walk towards me and his hands grab my shoulders. I feel my eyes start to water and rouge tears fall down my cheek. His golden eyes look down at me with sorrow and I can't do it. I push his arms off of me and walk towards the door. He grabs my hand and tried to pull me back to him.

"NO," I shout and wrench my hand away from his. Shock fills his golden gaze as I let go. I can't hold it in anymore. The first argument was child's play compared to what was going to happen.

"What is so bad that you have to leave Jace? Why can't you tell me anything?" I know tears are coming faster as I wait for his response, but nothing in me has the strength to wipe them.

"Clary, you wouldn't-"

"I'm not taking that bullshit excuse Jace! Tell me the truth; tell me what's going on!"

His gaze hardens significantly as he responds, "I can't Clary! You don't know what is happening! You don't know what I'm going through!"

"Then tell me Jace! Tell me what's so bad! I'm here for you! You have to realize that I'm trying to help but you're not letting me in!"

He drags a hand through his messy blonde hair and spits out, "Not everything is about you Clary! I don't need to tell you everything! You're not the center of the universe and you need to grow up and accept that!"

My world stops spinning and I feel dread pierce my heart as he says those words, but he doesn't stop there. "You're too childish and immature to know what's going on! Suck it up! You're not the all knowing god of the universe so I don't need to tell you _anything_!"

"Fine then! If I'm too _childish_ and _immature_ for you then you can figure out how to live without me!" I feel the tears fall harder and I can't even think anymore. "We're _DONE!"_

" _GOOD!"_ With that last word he picks up all of his bags and marches out the door, slamming it as he goes. I run to the door and lock it in as many ways as I can and walk the two steps to the bed before what just happened hits me.

My tears are like Niagara Falls and even though it's still early in the day, I crawl under the covers and cry myself to sleep. The last thoughts I have before I fall into sleeps welcome arms are heart wrenching. I cry countless tears for each individual thought:

 _Jace and I broke up._

 _We're done._

 _Our friendship is ruined._

 _I just lost the love of my life._


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: I'm totally apologizing in advance for this chapter! Sorry!**

Blinding light shines in my eyes, waking me up. I forgot to close the blinds last night…but who wouldn't. I throw off the duvet and walk into the bathroom, only to look in the mirror and see my tear stained face, the only thing left as a reminder of the boy that left me yesterday. I sigh as I strip off my clothes and jump in the shower, hoping my sorrows wash down the drain along with the hot water. But they don't leave me. Instead, grief revisits me and I start crying again. _I hate crying._

My mind wanders to my dreams and the color that haunted them. Gold. Golden hair, golden eyes, golden skin…the smile that he saved just for me. The moment that smile revisits my conscious, the tears come faster. _Pull yourself together! Take deep breaths._ I tell myself this and eventually I stop crying. I turn off the water in the shower and grab the towel that I hung on the back of the door. Quickly drying myself off, I manage to throw my hair up into a bun before heading into the closet to get dressed when a thought crosses my mind.

 **Izzy POV:**

"All you told me when Magnus and I got home last night was that Clary and Jace had a really bad fight and that it would be a good idea to leave them alone for the night. Why do I feel like I'm missing something, Simon?"

"Well," he begins while looking down at his hands that are folded in his lap, "I-it's not really my place to say." I glare at him and when his brown eyes look up at me behind his glasses, he immediately ducks his head again.

"Simon…If you don't tell me what happened, so help me God, I will-"

"Okay! Okay," he says and looks up at me again. Some of his floppy brown hair falls into his eyes and then he takes a deep breath before saying, "Claryandjacehadafightandheleftwhileshecriedinherroomallnightlong."

"What? Simon talk _slower,_ " I tell him and then he takes a deep breath again before saying slower, "Clary and Jace had a fight last night and he left…he flew back home and left Clary crying in her room all night."

My eyes widen before I plop down on the couch next to him in shock. "He-he left her…crying in her room?"

Simon nods and I say, "Th-the-they broke up…"

He looks down again and just as I'm about to open my mouth to say something else, I hear the door to the casita slam and a quiet, "Iz?"

"Clary," I jump up and walk around the corner to see her standing there with her bags at her feet. "What's going on?"

"Don't be mad Izzy," she pauses and swallows before continuing, "I-I just don't think I'd be that much fun if I were to stay here for the remainder of the trip, so I booked a flight and I'm going back home in two hours…do you think you could drive me to the airport?"

 **Clary POV:**

Her eyes widen and she opens her mouth to say something before a throat clears around the corner. She turns to look at whoever cleared their throat and she nods her head slowly. She looks back at me and says, "Yeah, of-of course I'll drive you. I'll meet you downstairs." I pick up my two bags and head towards the stairs. Just as I get to the bottom of the stairs, I hear Simon-who was probably the one who cleared his throat-say, "Don't mention it _at all_."

I walk into the garage and over to Izzy's G-wagon and open up the back to put my bags in. I hear the door open as I shut the back door and walk around the car to see Izzy, Simon, Magnus, and Alec all standing there. "Biscuit, you didn't think we'd let you leave without a hug did you," Magnus says with a hint of sadness lacing his voice. I crack a small smile and walk over to hug everyone except Izzy because she's driving me to the airport. They all look sad as they walk back inside and Izzy looks at me with a sorrowful expression as I say, "I'm going to miss my flight. Ready to go?"

She nods her head and we get in the car without another word, just like the rest of the ride to the airport…silent.

~.o.O.o.~

After I hugged Izzy and thanked her for the ride to the airport, I made it through the security check quickly since there wasn't really a line. Now I'm sitting at my gate waiting for my flight. I decide to give Jace a quick call so I grab my phone and press his contact button. I inhale shakily as I hear the line ringing. This time, it doesn't ring as long and I once again go to voicemail. I called him 5 times back at the house to try to talk to him but he didn't pick up…I didn't leave a voicemail either, but now I am. _Here goes nothing._

"Hey Jace, it's me, Clary. I just wanted to tell you that I'm at the airport in Orange County, waiting for my flight back home. Um…I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry and I shouldn't have done that. I should have waited for you to tell me what was wrong instead of being impatient. It was my fault….look, I'm just going to be blunt with this next part….I love you and I was being impulsive…I'm so sorry. Please forgive me….I love you."

I press the end button and sit back in my seat as I take a shaky breath in. I hear my flight being called and pick up my bags so I can start to head towards the line beginning to form outside the doors. Once I get there, I reach in my backpack and turn off my phone, grabbing my ticket. The line moves fairly quickly and I am in the plane within 5 minutes, waiting for the rest of the people to get in there seats. With my luck, a guy about my age comes on the plane and I see him scanning the numbers on the top of the seats to see where he is sitting. His eyes stop at my number and he glances down at me with a smirk on his face. I am _so_ not in the mood to deal with flirting for the next couple hours so I grab my headphones out of my bag and my iPad just as he reaches the seat.

"Hey, baby," he says, "looks like we're going to be keeping each other company for the rest of this flight." I roll my eyes and start to plug my head phones into my iPad. "No, you're going to be keeping yourself company because I'm _not entertaining_ your ass for the next couple hours," I tell him while the flight attendants start their safety demo as the plane pulls out of the gate.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him staring at me for a couple minutes. "Touchy," he says as the plane starts to speed up and begins to take off. He starts talking about his trip here and I ignore him as look out the window as the plane gains altitude and the moment the Capitan tells us we can use our electronics, I open my iPad and immediately put my headphones on, trying to drown out the sound of the world's most irritating guy.

I start _John Wick_ and 5 minutes into it, I feel the guy staring at me. I pause the movie and look at him to confirm my suspicions. "Do you mind _not_ staring at me?"

He looks up at my eyes and says, "It's not my fault you're wearing _that_."

I roll my eyes again and look back at my movie. _I'm wearing black leggings and a white tank top…what's so exciting about that?_ I just get past the first part in the movie when Keanu Reeves (John Wick) kicks ass when I have to pause it again because he's still staring at me. "Okay, do you want to keep your sight," I ask him.

He looks up from my chest shocked and then says, "There's not much you could do to me. You're what? 5 foot 2?"

I glare at him. "Don't underestimate me."

~.o.O.o.~

That's how the rest of the flight went. Now everybody is standing, waiting to get off the plane. We finally start moving and he steps out of the seat ahead of me and stops. "Lady's first," he says and I walk out ahead of him muttering a quick 'thanks.' We're now in the baggage claim and I thought I must have finally gotten my 'I'm not interested' point across to him when he grabs my ass. I swat his hand away and glare at him as I walk away to the baggage carousel.

I finally see my bag and lean over to get it when he comes up behind me and grabs me again. I've had enough. I pull by bag off the carousel and drop it on the floor next to me as I spin around and grab his wrist. "Enough," I spit out and he tries to use his other hand to pull me closer to him when I grab his pinky finger and start bending it backwards.

"OW," he cries out as he drops to his knees in pain and I don't let go. An airport security guard rushes over to us and asks, "What's the purpose of doing this?"

I look up at him on my left side and tell him, "Well, you see, Sir, he doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word 'no' and 'stop' so I thought I'd teach him. He wouldn't stop staring at me the entire time on the flight even though I told him to stop and then he just grabbed me twice a few minutes ago."

"Do you know him?"

"No, I don't Sir. Do you want me to let him go?"

"How old are you and what's your name," he looks at the guy I still have on his knees.

The guy says, "I'm not telling you." I look at the security guard and see a look of irritation cross his face. I decide to push his pinky finger back farther and he cries out in pain again before saying, "James! My name is James! I'm 18!"

The security guard looks up at me with a smile on his face and I tell him, "I'm Clary. I'm 17 but I'll be 18 in a couple weeks."

"Well, Clary," he begins, "you have a good day and I'll have a talk with James here. Thank you."

I nod my head and let James go. I reach down and grab my bags and then turn and walk out the door.

~.o.O.o.~

I get home from the airport around 7 and rush up to my room. I throw my bags on the floor and grab my phone before walking into the kitchen. "Hey mom!"

"Clary," Jocelyn looks up from her boiling pot of whatever she's cooking and rushes over to me. "How was your trip? What are you doing home so early?"

I laugh. "Well, the trip was great except for the last part when Jace and I had a fight. He came home early so I followed him to apologize."

Her face contorts into confusion. "I didn't know Jace came home. I just talked to Celine earlier today and she's coming over for dinner tonight. She never mentioned that he was home."

"Really, well I better run over there before she leaves so she can let me in the house," I tell her as I step out of her hug. Just as I'm about to go out the door, my mom's phone rings. I see that it's Celine and Jocelyn answers. "Celine?...Oh….I understand…..It's fine, Clary came home anyway…..Alright, we'll see you in a couple weeks…..Bye Celine and Clary told me Jace is home?...Tell him I said hi."

I wait for her to tell me what that was about and then I clear my throat. She looks up shocked. "Oh, Clary, I was so used to you not being here that I forgot you were here. She can't make it tonight. She and Jace are leaving town for a little while." _They're leaving town?_ My heart drops. I see Jocelyn start to dish out the spaghetti and meatballs that she made and I put on a fake smile while she tells me all about what she did when I was gone because I can't say anything right now.

Dinner ends quickly and I lie to her saying, "I'm tired from my flight and I'll tell you all about my trip tomorrow." She nods her head in understanding and for the second time in 24 hours, I cry myself to sleep.

 **Jace POV:**

"Ready to go Jace," Celine hangs up the phone and grabs her bags. We are leaving the city until school starts again. I slide off the kitchen counter and grab my bags when she tells me, "Oh and Clary's back too. Do you want to go see her before we leave?"

"No," I tell her and she looks at me curiously before nodding her head and starting towards the garage. She opens the door, walks over to the car, and throws her bags in the backseat while I follow her, still reeling from hearing that Clary is back. I get in the passenger side while Celine gets in the driver's seat. "Sleep Jace. We'll switch at midnight," she says and I nod my head. I put on my headphones and plug them into my phone. It's the first time I've opened my phone since yesterday when I left the beach house.

I see 6 missed calls from Clary and one voicemail. I open the voicemail.

 _"Hey Jace, it's me, Clary,"_ I hear her angelic voice and my heart splutters momentarily. " _I just wanted to tell you that I'm at the airport in Orange County, waiting for my flight back home,"_ her voice gains a careful tone as she continues. _"Um…I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry and I shouldn't have done that. I should have waited for you to tell me what was wrong instead of being impatient. It was my fault."_ She pause momentarily before I hear her let out a tiny groan. _"Look, I'm just going to be blunt with this next part….I love you and I was being impulsive…I'm so sorry. Please forgive me….I love you."_

With that she hangs up and I feel guilt coursing through me. I know I shouldn't have done that to her, but it's the only way to keep her safe. If this is over when we get back I will tell her everything. _Please let this be over soon._


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: I promise that this chapter will get better towards the end…just give it a chance and don't come after me with the pitchforks!**

 **Clary POV; Seven weeks later:**

"Clary," I hear Jocelyn shout from the front of the house.

"Yeah," I shout back.

"Celine will be over shortly. She said Jace couldn't come so it will just be us."

"Okay!" I can handle Celine…I think. School started 5 weeks ago and I've seen Jace around the halls. I still haven't talked to Jace. Just then, the doorbell rings and I hear my mom greet Celine. "Clary! Celine is here!"

I grab my phone and put it in the back pocket of jeans as I move soundlessly to the front of the house. I must have moved _really_ quietly because I can hear their hushed voices in the entryway. "How's Clary," I hear Celine ask.

"I don't know," mom answers, "She's been really closed off and stays in her room all day since she got back from California…sometimes I can hear her crying."

"Maybe Jace can help," when Celine says this I feel my hear jump a little bit at his name. I decide to make my presence known at that moment and walk around the corner. Celine and Jocelyn look at me and Celine smiles brightly. "Hi, Clary," she hugs me and then steps back, sharing a glance with Jocelyn. She nods her head and then Celine says, "You're welcome to go see Jace."

Just as I'm about to protest, Jocelyn interjects, "Yeah, Clary. Go over and see Jace." I look at her eyes and see that she is telling me ' _go see him.'_ I know I can't fight with her and nod my head. I turn around and head towards the door, slipping on my converse as I head out the door and start walking towards Jace's house.

 _Am I ready to see him? Will he even let me in the house?_ My heart starts beating faster as I get closer to his house. I pause once I get in front of his house. _Can I do this?_ My body makes the decision for me and the next thing I know I just knocked on the door and now I'm waiting for him to open it. Soon enough, he opens the door and I see his face light up before the mask returns. "Hey," I say quietly.

"Hey," he repeats. All I notice is how perfect he looks. He was obviously just working out because he's sweaty, out of breath, and is in shorts with no top on. Golden messy hair, mischievous golden eyes, tanned chest with a 6 pack, perfect lips moving…wait…moving?

"Sorry, what?"

He smirks, but this isn't the smirk he always gave me…this is the smirk he used on the girls at school, the cocky, self-centered, arrogant smirk. "I know I'm gorgeous, but you're going to have to stop staring," he leans down and whispers in my ear, "It's going to be hard, but save some for others."

I jerk my head back in shock and step away from him. His smirk widens and he steps aside to let me in. I stand in the doorway, dumbfound. He shrugs his shoulders and turns to walk into the kitchen, leaving me at the door. I follow him in and shut the door behind me. "When did you become such a…" I struggle for the right words to try not to sound like a bitch and he laughs.

"What? Am I so gorgeous that you can't speak? That's new," he says as he opens the fridge and gets out a water bottle.

"When did you become such an asshole?"

"Oh, looks like you finally got your voice back. And I've always been like this babe."

"No. You haven't _always_ been like this," I tell him.

"Well, I guess you we're just oblivious."

" _Oblivious?_ No, you're just being an asshole to me."

He looks thoughtful for a moment before saying, "I'm being an _asshole_? Well, I guess if the truth is coming out then I might as well tell you that you're immature, childish, a smart-ass, know-it-all, and an art freak."

As he finishes saying this I can't stop the tears from coming down my cheeks. He has never said anything like this before…never _done_ anything like this before. "I-I thought we were best friends…that-that we were in love, Jace…"

"Yeah, well, you were wrong, weren't you? You're just another girl to me."

My world stops moving… _just another girl…_ "You might want to leave," he says and that's my breaking point. "You arrogant, egotistical _bastard_ ," I shout at him as the tears fall harder, "You played a game with me this entire time?! If you think we will be friends after this then you are _wrong_ you _selfish prick_!"

I turn and run out of the house, back to my house with tears streaming down my face the entire way. I ran inside and slammed the door, running up to my room I flopped on my bed and let myself howl. I hear my mom and Celine come in my room and Jocelyn tries to consol me, but I can't stop crying. I let it all out…I tell them everything that happened between me and Jace from the beginning of summer to what just happened now.

I exhaust myself crying so I fall asleep in my mother's arms.

 **Celine POV:**

I just heard everything. _Everything._ Clary and Jace were dating…he didn't tell her…they fought…made up…fought again and now Clary is broken hearted. She cried herself to sleep 30 minutes ago and now Jocelyn and I are still sitting in silence. Jocelyn has her arms wrapped around Clary and I stand. "I have to go yell at Jace. Please tell me that this isn't going to ruin _our_ friendship Jocelyn…we both know everything about each other and I told you what's happening with-"

"I know," Jocelyn interrupts me, "This won't affect us, but please knock some sense into Jace. They were so happy when they were together...I shipped them."

I laugh, "I know Jocelyn. I did too. I'll lock the doors and turn off the lights since I know you aren't going to be moving for a while."

She smiles, "Thanks Celine…I'm here for you…just like you were when I had to deal with Valentine again."

"Goodnight," I say and close the door to Clary's room. I make my way through the house, turning off lights, locking doors, and organizing some things. Soon, I use the key Jocelyn gave me when they moved in so long ago to lock the front door as I leave and head home to rip Jace a new one.

 **Jace POV:**

"Jace," Celine comes in the front door looking pissed. Clary left one hour ago and I can only assume that Celine and Jocelyn were comforting her. "What," I ask and her eyes look at me with daggers.

"What the _hell_ did you do to Clary? She came home _sobbing_ and told us _everything_! I _never_ told you to push her away, to be a _complete dick_ to her, _to break her heart_ , _and I_ _certainly never_ _told you to hide anything from her!"_

I feel guilt begin to course through my veins, "She hurt me too! Her words bite also! I'm not fixing this!" I jump up from my position on the couch and run upstairs and slam the door behind me. I fall onto my bed trying to think about the fight and the possibility that I could be wrong, but my pride doesn't let me. My pride will let me admit that I said the most hurtful things I could think of to her, but I did it to protect her. Soon I fall asleep dreaming about a beautiful girl with dark red hair and dark green eyes who turns away from me…crying.

 **Clary POV; the next day:**

"Clary….Clary, honey wake up….it's time for school," I hear my mom's soft voice coaxing me out of a dreamless sleep. I open my eyes slowly and see her kneeling beside my bed. I stretch and slowly sit up, seeing that there is a plate of pancakes sitting on my bedside table waiting for me. I smile and grab the syrupy goodness, eating it as Jocelyn moves to sit on the edge of my bed. Her auburn hair and lighter green eyes match her perfectly. I look like a younger version of her apparently. She has higher cheek bones though.

"Are you okay, Clary?" I look up at Jocelyn and see how she's waiting cautiously for me to start crying again, but I hold back my tears.

"Yeah, I going to be late to school if I waste anymore time eating these amazing pancakes, though," I joke with her and she laughs.

"Alright then, I'll see you after you finish school. Love you," she stands and kisses the top of my head before leaving my room.

"Love you too," I shout after her as I put the plate aside and start getting ready for school.

~.o.O.o.~

School was uneventful because I avoided Jace all day long. Every time I saw him I would immediately turn around and walk the other direction. That was really hard to do since we have almost every class together. Just as I am unlocking my front door I hear an unmistakable someone call me, "Clary!"

I stop moving as he runs up the walk way and when I turn around all I see is the curiosity in his eyes. "What do you want Jace? I can't talk right now." I know that I sound like a total bitch right now, but after last night, it's going to take something big for him to redeem himself. He stops coming towards me and I see his face change from curiosity to…nothing…and then he changes it back to…and expression that I don't know.

"Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"You wanted to see how I'm doing?" This has to be the dumbest thing he's ever said. "Well, life is pretty shitty right now." He opens his mouth to say something but I don't let him talk. "I thought I was in a relationship where my boyfriend and I loved each other, but I was wrong about that. Then I lost both my boyfriend and best friend in the same day because he decided to be an egotistical asshole who said the meanest things he could think of to me. To top it all off, he's standing here, asking 'how I'm doing' when the clear answer is shitty."

"Clary, I-"

"You what Jace?" I feel my temper rising and I know his is too.

"I-I don't know Clary, okay! What do you want me to say?!"

"How about 'I'm sorry' Jace!" We've started a yelling match in front of my house and I know that horrible words are going to come soon. He doesn't say anything and looks at me confused. "Have you never heard the words 'I'm sorry' before Jace?! Have you never said them?!"

"Well, I guess I'm not as smart as you Clary!" His eyes flare and I know the hidden meaning under his words are ' _smart-ass_ '. "I'm actually happy that we're not dating anymore!"

"You know what! I'm done! Breaking up with you was the smartest thing I ever did!" I run inside and slam the front door behind me. I sink to the floor and start crying again as the gravity of our words hits me. My heart has broken all over again. I plug in my headphones and start to listen to music to distract myself when a song comes on that sparks my imagination and understanding for a project.

 **The next day:**

English…last period of the day before we can all go home. I made it through the day so far without crying at the thought of Jace…I know that won't last though. I was crying when I wrote this project and I feel like I'm going to cry again. I'm the last student in today's class to present my annotation; I just hope it's as good as I think it is. It killed me to realize all of this.

 **Jace POV:**

"For the project, we got to choose a song and find the hidden meaning...not just listen to the music. I chose Adele's 'Love in the Dark'," Clary pauses and takes a deep breath. I hear her voice and look up at her. She looks better than I know she is…I heard her cry after she shut the door. "For my presentation, I will play the song before after I finish so you can feel and hear the emotion in the lyrics." She is not looking in my direction.

She looks like she's preparing for something that's going to break her down. There's no way she's that heartbroken...she left me. I put my walls back up around my heart. I'm the cold hearted person I never was. This is the only way I won't break down. Her words hurt me like mine hurt her. But hearing her voice has already damaged the outer walls.

"This presentation will be shorter than others...but I think I will get my message across in these few words." I know this message is meant for me, so I try my to tune out her words, but my body isn't listening to me and I hear her...loud and clear as she explains the meaning of the song.

"Adele's 'Love in the Dark' is about loving someone with your whole heart, and they love you back, but there's so much that the person isn't telling you. You're tired of the not knowing anything and decide to leave," her voice breaks as she says the next words, "No matter how much it breaks your heart...it's for the best even though it doesn't feel that way...even though you are broken inside...even though you feel like your heart won't be whole again." I see a rouge tear fall down her cheeks and she presses the play button on her laptop again.

As Adele's voice echoes through the room, I realize that this is the exact way we left things. The bell rings as the song ends and everyone is frozen in their seats, even all the girls who were mean to Clary before this class started are motionless. Clary still stands at the front of the classroom with her head hanging and Mrs. Penhallow, our English teacher, wipes a tear from her eyes and dismisses the rest of the class.

Everyone gets up and leaves quietly as I still sit in my seat, motionless. Clary turns around to unhook her laptop from the speakers and shoves it in her bag. I grab my bag and start to slowly stand up as she turns around. When she sees that I am still in the room, she inhales sharply. Her eyes water and I see tears start to fall as she starts to run out of the classroom.

Shit. I messed up big time.

 **Clary POV:**

My vision is cloudy as I run through the halls. Thankfully, that was our last class and its Friday so everyone's left. I was standing there for a good 10 minutes trying to not cry when I packed up and saw Jace. I couldn't keep it in any longer and bolted.

I hear Jace running behind me and I speed up. I make it out the door and down the steps in the front of the school by the time he gets outside the doors. "Clary, listen to me." I ignore him and slow to a walk because I can't breathe. _Note to self, never run as hard as you can and cry at the same time again._

"Clary!" He shouts at me and I keep walking. I can't look at him and not cry...I can't hear his voice and not cry.

"Damn it! You're worth it Clary!" I stop walking. Why does that sound so familiar? Then I remember...the project Mrs. Belcourt assigned to us when we were in 8th grade...

 _"Why would Mrs. Belcourt even assign this? This is stupid," Jace says as he throws his pencil on his books and crosses his arms over his chest as he leans back. I look at the messy golden hair that is getting to long for him and roll my eyes. "You know why, Jace. Miss Lily agreed to let Mrs. Belcourt have her class period for one month and then it's back to History." He grumbles and sits forward to pick up the pencil again._

 _Miss Lily, our History teacher, agreed to let Mrs. Belcourt, the school counselor, have her class period to 'get us ready for high school' and 'help us not fall to the elements of peer pressure' and even to 'let us realize our own feelings and passions.' When they were explaining our schedule switch they used those exact words and all I could think was kill me now. Apparently, Jace thought the same thing because he gave me the 'kill me now' face._

 _But that was a week ago and now, Mrs. Belcourt gave us_ _homework_ _. We have to answer the questions on the worksheet with 'how we feel and what our true feelings are when we read the question for each subject.' I look over at Jace after I finished the worksheet and see that he's struggling on the_ _first_ _question. "Let me help you," I say and pull the worksheet out of his hands. "Clary, give it back!" he reaches out for the paper and I put it over my head and to the side. We are currently sitting on the floor so if he really wanted to get the paper back, he could just stand up and grab it. "Jace, I'm helping you. Do you trust your best friend?" I ask and raise one eyebrow._

 _He sighs, "Yes, Clary I do, but Mrs. Belcourt is going to know the difference between my answers and yours."_

 _"Idiot," I roll my eyes again, "I'm not going to write the answers for you, I'm going to read them off and you are going to answer them with whatever pops into your head."_

 _"Fine," he says and sits back. His golden eyes look at me expectantly and I read the first question. "What do you aspire to be when you grow up?"_

 _He smirks and says, "Well, I want to be a magical faerie and dance around in tights with antlers strapped to my head."_

 _I try to hide my smile. It doesn't work though and he says, "I knew you'd like that answer!" That's the downside to having a best friend who knows you better than you know yourself…they always know what to say to get you to laugh, or to get you to be happy. "Be serious Jace. Now here's the next question," I clear my throat and my eyes almost pop out of my head at this question. "Everyone has different worksheets, don't they?"_

 _He nods and says in a mockingly proper voice, "What evil does that question bring about?"_

 _I laugh and read the question as it's written on the page._ _Here goes nothing._ _"What would you do for true love?"_

 _He thinks about this question for a little while and then says, "I'd do anything for true love."_

 _"Really?" I look up and think of a question to test that statement and come up with the perfect one. "Would you, and that insanely large ego of yours," he smirks, "admit that you were wrong to gain true love back?"_

 _His expression grows serious and then he says, "If she's the one, then yes. I'd do anything to gain true love back…."_

"I was wrong," he continues, "Hell, I was an idiot to keep things from you! I shouldn't have kept things like that from you...Please forgive me...I love you..."

My tears fall quicker and I turn to face him. Do I still love him? Can I forgive him? I see his face and my heart makes the decision for me...the way my heart clenches at his pained expression.

The emotions are too much for me to handle and I fall on my knees, my hands covering my face as I weep into them. I never cry...I never expected to fall in love like this though...

He moves forward and kneels down in front of me. He places his hands over mine and moves my hands away from my face. I don't miss the jolt of electricity that runs through me at his touch as his hands find their way under my chin to lift my gaze to his. I look up at his face and he must have misread me crying harder as a sign of 'I can't do this' and I see a single rouge tear fall down the cheek of the boy who hasn't cried since he was ten. "Please, Clary...I realize now that I can't live without you...I love you...I was a complete idiot."

What I do next surprises us both. I lean forward, place my hands on either side of his face, and kiss him.


End file.
